HYDERABAD: Days after Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao pledged his support to the farmers’ agitation at the national level and also announced Rs 3 lakh ex gratia to the kin of around 700 farmers who died during the struggle, Bharatiya Kisan Union national spokesperson Rakesh Singh Tikait on Thursday trained his guns on AIMIM and urged the people to “control” Asaduddin Owaisi, as he and his party were playing spoilsport in north India.
Tikait who arrived in Hyderabad on Thursday and sat in a Maha Dharna organised by AIKSCC, marking the completion of one year of agitation against the three farm laws, which have since been repealed, said the AIMIM leader was an “untamed bull”.
He advised the Opposition parties to follow their own agenda and not get deviated from the discussion on farm laws in the upcoming winter session of Parliament. He also wondered why the Prime Minister who announced repealing of the three farms laws was shying away from speaking to farmers. “When the Prime Minister was clear about repealing the laws, why is he not speaking to farmers. They are not the criminals to be afraid of,” he said.
The leader refuted the “malicious campaign” that indicated that the agitating farmers reached a stage where they are set to split into different groups. “We are working unitedly and there are attempts by vested interests to create a narrative that a group of farmers was going to support BJP,” he said.
Tikait alleged that the present union government was not being run by a party, but it was one which toed the line of Nagpur (RSS). Even the media is provided with questions from Nagpur via Delhi. “Camera and pen under the shadow of guns, which is an unannounced curfew,” he said.
He welcomed the idea of Rs 3 lakh ex gratia announced by KCR and said that all the States should contribute more as they were helping the families of martyrs. On backing the TRS-led protest programmes on paddy procurement, the leader said that he would have to study the policy of the State government first before expressing his opinion on it.
Editor's note: This report has been amended after confirming that certain factual mistakes had crept into our original report. The errors are regretted.