Calling on the farmers across the nation to join the “tractor revolution”, farmer leader Rakesh Tikait on Saturday invited the peasants of the country to become a part of the ongoing protests at Delhi borders against the new three farm laws. Reaching out to the farming community, Tikait during his speech at the Ghazipur protest site said many are upset over the National Green Tribunal's ban on diesel vehicles, including tractors, that are over 10 years old, especially in the Delhi-NCR area.
"The tractors which run in the farms will now run at the NGT's office in Delhi also. Until recently, they had not asked which vehicles are 10 years old. What is their plan? Phase-out tractors older than 10 years and help the corporates? But the tractors older than 10 years will also run and the movement (for the repeal of the new farm laws) will also be strengthened," Mr Tikait, 51, told the gathering.
He said, recently, 20,000 tractors were in Delhi and their next target is to reach 40 lakh, adding that more and more farmers from across the country will participate in the farmers'' agitation for revoking the three farm bills.
He also urged tractor owners to attach their vehicles with the "tractor Kranti" (tractor revolution). "Write "Tractor Kranti 2021, 26 January" on your tractors. Wherever you will go, you will be respected. We have a target of 40 lakh tractors," said Mr Tikait.
The farmer leader has also called on villagers to bring a fistful of soil to the protest locations and take some amount of the “mitti” of the “Kranti” from the agitation sites with them. "Go and spread this revolutionary soil in your farmlands and never will traders look at your farmlands," Mr Tikait said.
During the Chakka Jam yesterday, Tikait has asked the protest supporters to keep the energy going and prepare to reach the protest sites Ghazipur, Tikri and Singhu borders as the agitation will go till October 2, as he gave an ultimatum to the government to repeal the laws by that time. "Be prepared at villages, whenever a call is made, reach the protest site the way the youth from Haryana and Uttar Pradesh have done after the January 26 incident" he said.
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After the Republic Day violence, Tikait’s emotional breakdown on camera has influenced hundreds of people from villages in UP< Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand to reach the protest site with food and water and extend support to him, after water supply was disrupted at the protest site.