E-Paper
Show of strength is never done against family: UP minister on Naresh Tikait's remarks
Uttar Pradesh Minister Suresh Rana statement comes a day after Tikait termed farm laws a "fire" (aag) which would lead to losses and urged the Centre to repeal them.
Uttar Pradesh Minister Suresh Rana on Monday hit out at Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Naresh Tikait over his recent remarks and asserted that a show of strength is never done against the family.
His statement comes a day after Tikait termed farm laws a "fire" (aag) which would lead to losses and urged the Centre to repeal them.
Throwing a challenge, the BKU leader had said, "If a display of strength has to be done, then the BJP can do so in a state where it is in power like Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. The government will get to know its strength. We will make it fail at every place. We will bear the cost of the stage. We speak for the honour of the farmers."
Replying to him, Rana said the welfare of farmers has always been the BJP's top priority.
"I am myself a son of a farmer and BJP has always kept the welfare of the farmers in its agenda. But I would only say that show of strength is never done against the family," Rana told PTI on Monday.
"Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken the initiative of doubling the income of the farmers through new laws. And if the farmer brothers have raised questions, then the PM has kept the door for talks open," he added.
The UP sugarcane development minister accused the Congress of misleading the farmers over the agri laws.
"In 2013, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had spoken about amendments in laws for improvement in the agriculture sector. When Prime Minister Narendra Modi implemented this with courage, then instead of praising it, the party started misguiding the farmers. When such people joined the farmers' protest, its direction changed."
When asked to comment on the recent remarks made by Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav over the farmers' issue, the UP minister alleged that indulging in casteist politics, spreading animosity in society, deriving political mileage and defining socialism using one's own lens is the priority of Yadav and his party.
On Sunday, the SP chief had said that the farmers were deeply hurt by the moves made by the BJP to defame them.
"The farmers are feeling deeply hurt because of the moves made by the BJP to defame them. The BJP has enacted demonetisation, GST, labour laws and farm laws to give benefits only to the billionaires. The BJP has tortured the common people," he had said in a tweet in Hindi.
Rana condemned the incidents of violence that unfolded during the farmers' tractor parade in Delhi on Republic Day.
"When the prime minister, home minister and the agriculture minister have kept the option of talks open, then solution can be reached through talks. Prime Minister Modi and UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath have continuously worked in the interest of the farmers," he added.
