The government wants to prolong the protest, but the farmers are also ready for a long haul and will not leave the site until the demands are met, said Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait, one of the faces of ongoing farmers’ agitation.
“The summer season would soon be setting in and farmers require AC and coolers to stay put at the protest site. The government should provide power connections at the site or else we have to install generators,” Tikait said.
“The way people got water for us at the protest site, they will also get us diesel for the generators.”
Tikait, the national spokesperson of the BKU, has been leading the protesters at Ghazipur on the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border and said the farmers won’t end their movement until their demands are met.
The ‘Delhi Chalo’ farmers’ protest at border points of New Delhi has entered the 81st day today. Thousands of farmers, especially from Punjab and Haryana, are staging a sit-in protest along Delhi borders.
The protest started on November 26, 2020. The farmers are demanding a complete rollback of the new farm reform laws and a guarantee on the Minimum Support Price (MSP) system being retained.
Multiple rounds of talks between the Centre and the farmers’ union leaders have ended in a stalemate. Protesting farmers fear that the new laws will dismantle the MSP system and corporatise farming.
The Supreme Court had earlier ordered a stay on the implementation of these contentious laws, hoping it will end the protest.
The farm union leaders have also rejected Centre’s proposal to suspend implementation of the laws for the 18 months.
