New Delhi, September 6
A day after the Muzaffarnagar ‘Kisan Mahapanchayat’, the BJP on Monday accused BKU (Tikait) leader Rakesh Tikait of “defaming” farmers by politicising the issue and giving it “religious tones to appease a particular community” for political interests .
Talking to The Tribune, BJP Kisan Morcha chief Rajkumar Chahar alleged that Tikait is “fulfilling his political ambition by riding on the shoulders of innocent farmers” as the majority of participants at the “political rally” yesterday were cadres of the SP, the RLD and communist parties.
“Otherwise what were communist leaders and their supporters like Yogendra Yadav, Medha Patkar, Atul Anjan were doing there,” he questioned.
“It is wrong to call the political rally a ‘Kisan Mahapanchayat’. A ‘mahapanchayat’ is never one sided, it is a dialogue, a debate on issues. What happened yesterday was a political rally by political leaders for personal political gains by communalising and appeasing a particular community. Why else did Tikait chant ‘Allah-ho-Akbar’ from the stage there,” questioned Chahar.
When pointed out that Tikait had also chanted ‘Har Har Mahadev’, the BJP’s Fatehpur Sikri MP challenged him to make “his political supporters from the minority community chant ‘Har Har Mahadev’ and ‘Jai Shri Ram’ from the stage”.
“By chanting Allah-ho-Akbar, Tikait has made his political agenda clear,” he claimed.
Notably, accusing the Narendra Modi-led Centre and Yogi Adityanath-led state government of dividing people on communal lines, Tikait shouted both ‘Allah-ho-Akbar’ and ‘Har Har Mahadev’ from the stage, stating that in earlier times the slogans used to be chanted together.
According to political observer Prof Sudhir Panwar (who belongs to the region), Tikait’s father, late farmer leader Mahendra Singh Tikait, also used to chant ‘Har Har Mahadev’ and ‘Allah-ho-Akbar’ at his meetings and make people from both communities repeat after him to promote Hindu-Muslim unity.
Meanwhile, Chahar also said that “through these agriculture reforms the BJP is fulfilling the dreams of ‘mahatma’ Mahendra Singh Tikait and Charan Singh of increasing farmers’ income and bringing prosperity in the rural India”.
He refused to comment on the BJP’s Pilibhit MP Varun Gandhi’s statement yesterday, urging the government to “re-engage” with farmers in a “respectful manner”, “understand their pain and point of view” and reach a “common ground”.
The BJP Kisan Morcha president said, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government is always sensitive on the issue of farmers and its doors are always open. All the steps and policy decisions taken by the government, including the increase in the MSP and the DBT, are directed towards farmers’ welfare”.
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