Self-declared farmer leader and andolanjeevi Rakesh Tikait was seen fumbling for words and diverting the topic when ABP News journalist Rubika Liyaquat asked him to point out the specific problems with the three Farm Laws.
Tikait who has been leading the farmers’ protest in India for eight months now, was left red-faced when the anchor asked him to highlight the specific sections of the law which were problematic for him or to prove his claims about the laws.
Liyaquat who was sitting with the copies of the agricultural laws asked Tikait if he had read the laws against which he has been protesting and what exactly bothered him. Totally unable to specify sections of the farm laws that say what he claims, Tikait cross-questioned Liyaquat and asked how many mandis have been shut since the laws were proposed.
Finding no answer to Rubika’s questions, Tikait shifted the goalposts again. He asked, “Parliament me kanoon pehle bane ya ye godam pehle bane (What was built first? The Laws or the godowns?)”
जिस क़ानून का काला कह रहे हैं… जिसे वापस लेने की माँग कर रहे हैं राकेश टिकैत उस क़ानून को कितना पढ़ा है देखिए pic.twitter.com/yzGdyMsZpP
— Rubika Liyaquat (@RubikaLiyaquat) August 27, 2021
The anchor once again asked Tikait to point out the section which gives leeway to private companies to occupy a farmer’s land, as per his claims. “If you don’t know the answer then tell me and I will read out the portion of the clause which explicitly says that no entity is entitled to take over a farmer’s land,” said Rubika.
Rattled by the questions, Tikait resorted to ad hominem attacks against the anchor, accusing her of working for the ruling party. “Aap sarkar ke kis post pe hai? (At which post are you working for the ruling government)” questioned Tikait.
राकेश टिकैत जी आपके साथ, आपके बैनर तले आंदोलन करूँगी बस एक लाइन बता दीजिए क़ानून में कि उद्योगपति- किसानों से ज़मीन ले लेंगे… pic.twitter.com/L7Ol1BaPdS
— Rubika Liyaquat (@RubikaLiyaquat) August 27, 2021
He further stated that the laws in their entirety are ‘black laws’ and that they have stated their problems in front of the government already. This was a lie too. The government had met the so-called farmer leaders nearly a dozen times. But the farmer leaders have not been able to point out specific sections of the laws which are problematic to them. They have just been demanding a complete withdrawal, just for the sake of protests.
It is notable here that the farm laws were passed after years of discussions with various farmer groups and the liberty to sell outside the monopoly of mandis has been a long-standing demand of the very same farmer unions that are now opposing the laws.
Well, Tikait has been in news for giving overzealous statements and threats in media with no real logic. From asking the government to solve the problem by either ‘talking or firing bullets‘ to threatening suicide, Tikait has been entertaining the media with his antics for quite some time.
