'Get Ready To Set Standing Crops On Fire If Need Be': Rakesh Tikait Tells Haryana Mahapanchayat

Rakesh was addressing a 'mahapanchayat' at Hisar's Kharak Poonia village in Haryana when he told farmers to be prepared to set their standing crop on fire if need be.

File Photo: PTI

Hisar: Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait on Thursday declared that farmers should be ready to sacrifice their standing crops amid the ongoing protests against the union government's agrarian laws. 

Rakesh was addressing a 'mahapanchayat' at Hisar's Kharak Poonia village in Haryana.

Reiterating that protesting farmers won't return home till the farm laws are repealed, he said the government should not be under the impression that the protest against the laws will end when farmers will have to go to their villages to harvest their crops.

"Even if you have to set your standing crop on fire, you should be prepared for it. The government should not harbour this impression that farmers will return home. We will harvest crops and continue our agitation at the same time," he spoke addressing the "mahapanchayat". "There will be no "ghar wapsi" till then," he added.

The BKU spokesperson also asked the farmers to be ready for the next call of farmer unions.

"Keep your tractors filled with fuel and facing towards Delhi. You can get a call to move at any time, that will be decided by the committee (farmers unions)," he declared.

It was also stated that after Haryana, they will be holding panchayats in other parts of the country, including in West Bengal, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat.

Tikait also said that the next time, they will go to the national capital with their agricultural implements.

Talking to the gathering, Haryana BKU chief Gurnam Singh Chaduni claimed, "If new agricultural laws are implemented, crops will be purchased at arbitrary prices and farmers will be forced to even sell their land".

Thousands of farmers have been protesting at the Delhi borders since November last year, demanding a complete repeal of the Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; Farmers' (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020; and Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.

The conversation between centre and farmers' leaders reached a deadlock when the unions rejected the proposal of temporarily suspending the agrarian laws' implementation.

(With Agency Inputs)