‘Make Bengaluru another Delhi,’ Rakesh Tikait tells Karnataka farmers

 “Bengaluru ko Dilli banana padega (Make Bengaluru another Delhi),” said Rakesh Tikait, the Samyukt Kisan Morcha leader, giving a clarion call to farmers and labourers in southern states to intensify their protest and express solidarity with the ongoing farmers’ agitation in Delhi that has crossed 155 days.

Tikait was addressing the ‘Raita Mahapanchayat’ at Shivamogga on Saturday which was organised by the farmers organisations of Karnataka under the banner of Aikya Horata.

“We have lined up 25,000 tractors and sealed the borders of Delhi. This agitation will go on until the government withdraws all three farm laws and brings a law for minimum support price. I urge farmers of Karnataka to stage protest outside the DC and AC offices demanding for MSP for all your crops,” he said.

“It is not just the farm laws, many more laws pertaining to milk, seed, electricity, pesticide are on cards as the government is facilitating the corporates and the banks to usurp all the farm lands. Our youth will be forced to abandon farming and will end up as daily wagers in factories,” warned Tikait, adding that corporates were entering the food business in a big way.

Expressing concern over the entry of big food companies and privatisation of the public sector units, Tikait called for unity and cooperation across all sections of the society to take on the government.

“Roti ko tijori mein bandh karayenge (They will keep food under lock and key) aur roti ki keemat pooche jayenge..bhookh ke aadhar pe. (They will put a price tag on food and monetise hunger). The PSUs, the airports, railways, LIC, BSNL, everything is up for sale. We need to protect these assets and the jobs. No government employee will get pension but MLAs and MPs will continue to get. The soldiers, the policemen, the government employees cannot protest. But we should become their voice as they all belong to our villages," said Tikait.

Tikait alleged that the government tried to divide the 40 ‘panchs’ spearheading the protests in Delhi to weaken the agitation, but failed.

“Today, the government is running a company. It is clear from the silence of senior leaders of the ruling party that the government is no longer being run by a political party. It is time to chase away looters from this country, who are planning to plunder through the companies. We must chant ‘Jai Ram, Jai Bhim’ and unitedly fight to succeed,” Tikait said.

Earlier, another prominent leader of the Morcha, Dr Darshan Pal, stated the farmers agitation had united India and defeated the “communal agenda” of the ruling party.

“The agitation has brought the farmers, dalits, women and students together and defeated the divisive politics of Modi. If all the Punjab farmers unions are now united, the caste war between Meenas and Gujjars in Rajasthan has ended. The farmer agitation is like the backbone and we need to fill in the flesh and blood and add muscle to the protest. The dalits, adivasis, farmers and the common man has to join the cause. Modi will have no option but to repeal the anti-farmer and anti-people laws faring international backlash,” said Pal.

The Mahapanchayat in Shivamogga, the hometurf of Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa, which saw state farmer leaders Kodihalli Chandrashekhar, Kurubur Shantakumar, K.T. Gangadhar, Shobha Sundaresh, Chukki Nanjundaswamy among others, passed 10 resolutions mainly demanding immediate withdrawal of the three farm laws by the Centre.

The Mahapanchayat has also demanded cancellation of the recent amendments to the Land Acquisition Act, APMC Act, Electricity Act, and anti-Cow Slaughter law by the state government, fixing of the MSP for all the crops based on the reports by Swaminathan and Prakash Kammaradi and enacting a new law that guarantees MSP, regularisation of Bagair Hukum lands and houses built on government land by the poor and strengthening of PTCL Act to ensure justice to SC/ST communities and to scrap the recommendations of the Kasturirangan Commission report that threaten to evict people in the Western Ghats and Malnad region.

The farmers’ congregation condemned the Karnataka chief minister for implementing anti-farmer laws and mocked at him taking oath in the name of farmers while refusing to meet the agitating farmers even in a gesture of courtesy.

The meeting alleged it was a government ploy to gradual dismantle the public distribution system and weaken the Anna Bhagya scheme which is feeding crores of poor people and demanded food grains for all citizens at affordable price. The Mahapanchayat registered protest against the state government handing over 33,000 hectares of forest land in Malnad region to a private party on a 40-year lease as it is leased to MPM factory that has gone defunct five years back.