‘Keep your tractor ready’: Rakesh Tikait exhorts fellow ‘farmer protesters’ to intensify protest

After celebrating the six-month anniversary of the farmer’s protest, BKU leader Rakesh Tikait has once again called for intensifying the protests and called upon the protesting farmers to be ‘ready with the tractor’. On Sunday, Tikait suggested on Twitter that farmers should step up their protest as the Center would not bow down to their demands. “The government will not agree. Treatment is necessary. Have your tractor ready. We have to intensify the protest to save our land,” he tweeted. Not a government target. behave like Preparation with tasks. To be fast for the earth. #FarmersProtest- RakeshTikait (@RakeshTikaitBKU) June 20, 2021 From announcing a protest outside all Raj Bhavans on June 26 to announcing a protest till 2024, Tikait has from time to time engaged the alleged farmers in his petty threats and calls. Mahapanchayat demands removal of Singhu border done. Stop the protesters and violence immediately. Haryana: Mahapanchayat is going on in Sonipat’s Sersa. People from 12 villages of Delhi and 17 villages of Haryana also say here, “Our 3 demands are – open Singhu border from one side, there should be no violence and protesters should not put up barricades. We will meet the central and state governments” pic.twitter.com/4iHI2mnNel- ANI (@ANI) June 20, 2021 Villagers also informed that they are ready to meet the state and central government to put forth their demands. Center ready for talks The Center has once again called upon the farmers to start talks. Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar recently tweeted a video saying, ‘The Government of India is ready to talk to any farmer organization and at any time on the provisions related to the new agricultural laws. We welcome them…” Journalists belonging to the new agricultural culture of the Government of India join any farmer organization… We also welcome them… pic.twitter.com/gv1FF9zU8i— Narendra Singh Tomar (@nstomar) June 18, 2021 He also suggested that they are ready to hold a meeting at midnight to address their grievances on the new agricultural laws. Meanwhile, the rise in crimes at protest sites There has been a sharp increase in crime rates in and around protest sites. We narrated how a man named Mukesh (42), a resident of Kasar village in Bahadurgarh in Haryana’s Jhajjar district, died on May 16 after he was allegedly set ablaze by farmer protesters at the Tikri border protest site. In an interview with OpIndia it is said, “The agitators on the Tikri border, they are not farmers but hardcore criminals. They are always drunk and are always under the influence of alcohol. It’s been a year, these people are not leaving here. They have created chaos here.” Similarly, the village sarpanch Tony Kumar also expressed doubts about the intention of these people who were protesting as farmers. Expressing his grief after this horrific incident, Tony Kumar said that in the past too many villagers have come to him with complaints against these protesting people. Villagers complain that these farmers go to their fields to defecate, molest and harass the women of the village. Several incidents of assault and molestation have also been reported from these protest sites.