FILE PHOTO: Miscreants threw ink on Rakesh Tikait during an event organised by a farmers’ organisation in Bengaluru on May 30, 2022
Stoking controversy yet again, Nand Kishor Gurjar, BJP MLA from Uttar Pradesh’s Loni assembly seat, has said that Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait would have been killed in an encounter had he not been among the farmers.
Gurjar said, “Had he not been surrounded by farmers during the agitation, he would have been eliminated in an encounter.”
“Rakesh Tikait will be remembered as a dark chapter in history as he has cheated farmers. Had the agricultural bills been enacted, the lives of farmers would have changed. The bill brought by Prime Minister Narendra Modi would have liberated farmers from the clutches of middlemen worldwide,” alleged Gurjar, while speaking to media persons in Baghpat, on the sidelines of an event, on Sunday.
He said further, “Rakesh Tikait, in collusion with Khalistanis and middlemen, has committed heinous acts and the country’s farmers will not even allow him to set foot two years from now.”
Gurjar alleged, “The country was first enslaved by Mughals, then by the British and now, Tikait has done the same by hoisting a flag of Khalistan in place of national Tricolour.”
Meanwhile, in response to Gurjar’s statement, BKU leader Rakesh Tikait alleged that the MLA must show where he (i.e. Tikait) has hoisted the Khalistani flag.
“Even PM Narendra Modi visits Gurudwara,” Tikait said and demanded that the government should give a clarification about Gurjar’s statement of encounter. The prominent farmer leader added, “We will write a letter to the government to know what was the reason for making such a statement.” Gurjar has been accused of creating chaos during farmers’ protest; his supporters had allegedly beaten protesting farmers in presence of police.
Meanwhile, back in June 2022, Rakesh Tikait had alleged that the government “wants to get me killed” and that the attacks carried out on him in Delhi and Karnataka was proof of this. Tikait said this while addressing farmers and union members at the “Kisan Panchayat” in Meerut’s Kanker Khera.
The farmer leader had termed the black paint attack on him in 2022 in Karnataka as a “well-planned” conspiracy and alleged that there was also a plot to kill him when he visited General Bipin Rawat’s residence in Delhi — to pay homage to him — after his tragic death in a helicopter accident in December 2021.
Tikait alleged that crucial time was being wasted in infighting as the government was playing “sabotage” politics to make the farmers’ union weak and ineffective.
He had asserted, “The Tikait family has always raised the farmers’ voice strongly and will continue doing it. After Baba Mahendra Singh Tikait, Naresh Tikait has now dedicated himself to the cause. The Tikait family will not succumb to the pressure.”
He had said that before the elections, the Uttar Pradesh government has promised free electricity for irrigation. However, now farmers are being harassed by installing meters on tube-wells; tractors more than 10 years old are being stopped and the BKU is fighting against such harassment, he added.
Tikait had said that only a strong and united opposition against the government will fetch results and appealed to farmers to get the maximum number of people under the union’s fold. He had added, “The fight is on, it will continue until the government comes to the negotiating table. Till then, there will be no solution.”
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