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12th death anniversary of Mahendra Singh Tikait | 5 things to know about ex-BKU chief
One of the tallest farmer leaders the country has ever seen, Tikait was born on October 6, 1935, and passed away on May 15, 2011.
Monday marks the twelfth death anniversary of Mahendra Singh Tikait, one of the tallest farmer leaders the country has ever seen. Born on October 6, 1935 in Uttar Pradesh's Sisauli, Tikait passed away on May 15, 2011 after a prolonged battle with bone cancer.
“The principles you inculcated in us always help us in our fight for the farmers, labourers, exploited, and underprivileged people of the country. Your absence, however, is always felt in this fight. With moist eyes, we offer our tributes to you,” tweeted farmer leader Rakesh Tikait, his son (tweet translated roughly from Hindi).
Here are 5 things to to know about Mahendra Singh Tikait:
(1.) Tikait was married to Baljori Devi. Together, they had six children, including four sons and two daughters. At a tender age of eight, he became the head of the Baliyan ‘Khap,’ inheriting the post from his father after the latter's demise in 1943.
(2.) He is a former head of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), a farmers' outfit founded in 1987 by Chaudhary Charan Singh, India's fifth prime minister who held the office from July 1979 to January 1980.
(3.) BKU's current national president is Naresh Tikait, Mahendra Singh Tikait's eldest child who also succeeded the late farmer leader as and is the incumbent ‘Chaudhary’ (leader/chief) of the Baliyan Khap. Rakesh, meanwhile, is a spokesperson of the BKU, and was one of the most prominent faces of the year-long agitation against the eventually revoked three central farm laws.
(4.) Though he led several farmer agitations, Mahendra Singh Tikait's most famous protest came in 1988, at the Delhi Boat Club. Then-prime minister Rajiv Gandhi's government had no option but to accept his charter of demands.
(5.) In 2008, he made alleged objectionable remarks against Mayawati, the erstwhile chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. She responded by ordering his arrest, triggering a confrontation between his supporters and the police. According to wikibio, Tikait negotiated a peaceful surrender before a court and was released after apologsing to Mayawati.
