Mumbai: Speaking in Uttar Pradesh’s Baghpat at a farmers’ congregation, Bhartiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait said that his farmers’ group will start a campaign against the Centre’s Agnipath military recruitment scheme from August 7.
Addressing a gathering of farmers in Tikri area of Baghpat district in western Uttar Pradesh, Tikait said the “fight with the central government and the Uttar Pradesh government” over the issue had not yet begun.
Seeking support from the farming community, the national spokesperson of BKU said, “The campaign against the Agnipath scheme will start from August 7 and will go on for over a week.”
He also alleged that old police cases were being opened against him to intimidate the farmers in the wake of major protests in recent years.
“When the BJP government was formed in Uttar Pradesh, cases against BJP members were closed. So either they should be ready for trial or we are ready for agitation,” Tikait said.
“The people of Lucknow and Delhi should listen carefully. You can break the political parties, you can break the leaders of the peasant groups, but cannot break the farmers. Farmers will protest against you (government),” he said.
Tikait also highlighted issues related to the acquisition of land, power tariff and pending sugarcane dues among others as he addressed the crowd of hundreds of farmers.
Tikait rose to national prominence during the 2020-21 protests in Delhi against the now-repealed central farm laws.
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