Senior Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait, who has been leading the farmers’ agitation against the farm laws along the Delhi borders for the past four months, asked farmers of Karnataka to create a Delhi in Bengaluru and picket Vidhana Soudha from all corners.
He was speaking at southern India’s first Raitha Maha Panchayat organised by the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha, Hasiru Sene and Aikya Horata Samithi here on Saturday.
“You (farmers) need not come to Delhi to express your ire against the farm laws brought in by the Centre. But you have to convert Bengaluru into Delhi and intensify the agitation,” said Tikait.
He added that it is not the farm laws alone and that the Modi government will bring in laws aimed at snatching milk, seeds, electricity and land from the farming community. "It is not just the agitation of farmers from Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, but of entire India," he said.
He said the government is not keen to hold talks with the agitating farmers and resolve the issue as it is run by the giant companies which are looting the country. The withdrawal of laws would be detrimental to their business.
If any other government was in power at the Centre, it would have resolved the issue, Tikait said.
He said giant companies are doing business over the hunger of poor people. So, they have entered the agro-based sector.
Samyukt Kisan Morcha leader Darshan Pal from Punjab said farmers of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh need the support of their counterparts from southern India to “defeat the Modi government”.