Nagpur, Jan 17 (UNI) Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait on Sunday said farmers are prepared to protest against the Centre's new farm laws till May 2024 as the next Lok Sabha polls in the country is
due in May 2024.
Tikait, while addressing a press conference here, said farmers have been protesting against the new farm laws since November 26, 2020 and demanding withdrawing of the three new farm laws, which have been projected by the Centre as major reforms in the agriculture sector that will remove the middlemen and allow farmers to sell their produce anywhere in the country.
However, the farmers have expressed apprehension that the new laws would pave the way for eliminating the safety cushion of the MSP and do away with the mandi system, leaving them at the mercy of big corporates.
The protesting farmers want a legal guarantee on Minimum Support Price (MSP), he said.
When asked how long the farmers will sit in protest, Tikait said, "We are prepared to sit in protest till May
2024. Our demand is that the three laws be withdrawn and unless and until the government provide a legal guarantee on the MSP, it will continue on. The BKU leader also termed the ongoing agitation by farmers at Delhi as an ideological revolution.
Rejecting allegations that the protest was being fuelled by rich farmers, Tikait said people from villages
and various outfits have joined the protest. "This is an ideological revolution of farmers which started
from Delhi and will succeed . Farmers from villages do not want us come back until the three farm bills are withdrawn," he said.
"The government is firm on its stance of not scrapping the bills and this agitation will continue for long," Tikait said.
Referring to Supreme Court mediation that stayed the implementation of the three new farm laws till further orders and decided to set up a four-member committee to resolve the impasse over them between the Centre and farmers' unions protesting at Delhi.
The leader said, "We welcomed the SC's decision on staying the implementation of the farm laws, but said the committee formed by the Apex Court has members who supported the farm bills.
Tikait further said the opposition parties in the country were weak and that caused farmers to plung into this agitation against the Centre's new laws.
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