Media houses next target, join us to save yourselves: Farm leader Rakesh Tikait

BKU leader Rakesh Tikait made the statement in Chhattisgarh where he is scheduled to address a ‘kisan mahapanchayat’.

Farmer leader Rakesh Tikait said the government’s next target could be media houses and called on their stakeholders to join the months-long agitation against three central agri laws to save themselves.

File image of BKU leader Rakesh Tikait (centre).

“Everyone should join us. The next target will be media houses. If you want to be saved, join us, else you too will suffer,” said the senior functionary of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) in Chhattisgarh capital Raipur.

Tikait, who will address a ‘kisan mahapanchayat’ at Rajim in Gariaband district later in the day, said the biggest problem was that of minimum support prices of crops and vegetables.

“We'll raise the issues of (farmers from) Chhattisgarh. The biggest problem is the MSP in the country. We'll raise this issue. We will talk about how vegetable farmers of the state can be more benefitted and what policies need to be made for them,” the farm leader added.

Besides Tikait, other national leaders in the forefront of the farmers protest like Yogendra Yadav and Medha Patkar would join the event being organised under the aegis of Chhattisgarh Kisan Majdoor Mahasangh (CKMM), an umbrella body of farm outfits, on Krishi Upaj Mandi premises.

“Apart from the withdrawal of the three farm laws, we also want the Centre to enact a law to ensure minimum support price (MSP) guarantee for agricultural produce," a member of the group said.

The three laws, namely The Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020, and The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act 2020, were passed by Parliament in September last year.

The farmers have been protesting against the laws that they claim the Centre had introduced trying to bring in corporates and private firms into the agriculture sector at their expense for months now along the borders of the national capital and elsewhere.

(With agency inputs)