Away from Ghazipur, support pours in for Tikait at Muzaffarnagar event

Satender Goyala, a sugarcane farmer from Soram village, said he came to Muzaffarnagar with 1,000 other farmers from his village. “I know the clashes at Red Fort were unfortunate but we know Tikait. He would never insult the national flag. Tikait is like my brother; I can’t see him like this. We will go to Ghazipur if Naresh asks us to.”

Heavy police deployment was seen outside the ground and on the streets. Leaders from the Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Lok Dal, Congress and Aam Aadmi Party also joined the mahapanchayat, pledging to join the protest.

Farmers at the ground spoke about Tikait’s father, Mahendra Singh Tikait, among India’s tallest farm leaders and former president of BKU.

Rajbeer Singh, a farmer from Sisauli, said, “My father and I have known the Tikaits for ages. My father participated in the protests with Mahendra ji in the 1980s. I won’t let the BJP insult my brother. We are ready to go to Delhi. We are anyway against these farm laws. Tikait has been fighting alone for two months now. We won’t let him go down.”

At a mahapanchayat called by the BKU in Muzaffarnagar on Friday. (Express Photo: Abhinav Saha)

Jayant Chaudhary, former PM Charan Singh’s grandson, also came to the stage and spoke about Tikait.

He said the government should stop labeling farmers as “anti-nationals” and “terrorists”. Farmers and locals cheered as he hugged Naresh.

While several leaders said they were ready to leave for Delhi, Naresh told the farmers to “wait” and “move to Delhi in small groups”.

Chaudhary Gulshan Rod, a farmer from Uttarakhand’s Haridwar, said, “More than 80 tractors left from our city to join this meeting. We are with Tikait. We saw his tears; he was being tortured and intimidated. These officials want to scare farmers. We will fight them back. We will stand along with farmers from Punjab, Haryana and UP.”

After the five-hour mahapanchayat, the farmers were sent back and told they would soon be required for the movement. They said they will wait for that call.