He said, ‘We have started ‘Mission UP and Uttarakhand’ from this phase. We will not allow BJP to win in the upcoming elections.” United Kisan Morcha (SKM), an umbrella body of 40 farmer organizations, organized the mahapanchayat. “Muzaffarnagar Kisan Mazdoor Mahapanchayat will be remembered as a historic day and will prove to be a turning point in the Indian political scenario.”
When TOI visited the ground, which may have a lakh, it was packed to over capacity, crowds spread on the roads and even the flyovers next to the venue. Women and young farmers arrived in large numbers. Muzaffarnagar was a fort, the SKM said, adding that farmers from 16 states had reached for the mahapanchayat.
“Farmers will not be polarized by communal politics. Let us chant Allah Hu Akbar and Har Har Mahadev together,” said Indian Farmers Union (BKU) national spokesperson Rakesh Tikait, BKU national president Naresh Tikait, social activist Medha Patkar, Swaraj India president Yogendra Yadav and influential Sharing the stage with farmer leader Ghulam. Mohammad Zola. Zola, a founding member of the BKU, left the organization after the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots.
Announcing a farmers’ union for UP like the SKM, Tikait said it would “defeat the Yogi (Adityanath) government” in 2022. “They sold our rivers, our water. We will not let them sell our land. I will give my life if needed but will not leave the dharna site till we win.” “The struggle for freedom went on for 90 years. I don’t know how long ours will continue.”
Addressing the gathering for a minute or two, several farmer leaders spoke from the stage. All of them said the protests would continue until the government promised “legal guarantee of MSP”. He said that even 20% of the promised purchases have not been done. He said that while the state government had promised to waive off the loans of 86 lakh farmers, it had promised loan waiver to 45 lakh farmers. And the number of farmers who got crop insurance in UP decreased from 72 lakh in 2016-17 to 47 lakh in 2019-20, he added.
“We will not give up. The government canceled two trains in which farmers were coming to Muzaffarnagar from Ambala and Delhi. They stopped our buses on the highway. They installed jammers so that there was no live coverage,” said BKU general secretary Yudhveer Singh said.
Farmer leaders said that the next meeting would be held in Lucknow. A farmer leader said, ‘Yogi asked Tikait sahib to come to Lucknow. “We have come to Muzaffarnagar. We will be in Lucknow soon.”
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