Lay siege to Bengaluru on tractors: Tikait to farmers

Shivamogga, Mar 21: Farmer leader Rakesh Tikait has exhorted farmers of Karnataka to lay siege to Bengaluru with their tractors in protest against the three contentious farm laws passed by the Centre and convert the city to the focal point of agitation, like in Delhi.

''....you have to turn Bengaluru into Delhi. You will have to lay siege to the city from all directions,'' he told a farmers' mahapanchayat here late on Saturday.

Only tractors should be used, like in Delhi, where over 25,000 have blocked entry points to the city, he said.

Thousands of farmers, mostly from Punjab, Haryana, and western Uttar Pradesh, have been camping at the Delhi border points -- Singhu, Tikri, and Ghazipur -- for over three months, demanding the repeal of farm laws and a legal guarantee on the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for their crops.

Tikait claimed that lakhs of farmers and their families have laid siege to Delhi by agitating at the border points and said the stir would continue until the three laws are repealed.

''Unless the three laws are repealed, unless there is a law related to the MSP, you need to continue this agitation in Karnataka as well,'' Tikait said.

He said though the stir was to repeal the three farm bills, there were other 'controversial' bills in the pipeline, aimed at grabbing farmers' lands, forcing them to work as daily wagers in factories ''Besides these three laws, other bills about milk, electricity, seed, and pesticides will also be introduced,'' he said.

Tikait alleged that privatization of banks would result in farmers who have availed of loans through Kisan Credit Cards, with the land as collateral, being asked to surrender them.

''If the farmers do not have money to repay the loans, then they will take away your land,'' he alleged.

The government's target is to ensure that in the next 20 years, all the land goes to the banks and companies and the farmers become laborers, he charged.

The farmer leader, son of illustrious farmer leader Mahendra Singh Tikait, has taken the mantle of farmers' agitation along with his brother Naresh Tikait around Delhi and has been conducting public meetings in various parts of the country against the farm bills.