Responding to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s appeal that he was just a phone call away, BKU leader Rakesh Tikait said farmers were open for talks as dialogue was the only way to resolve the crisis.
“We want to bring the talks back on track and resolve the issue. We hope to have a timeline for talks in the coming days,” he said.
Mr. Tikait said he believed in the Constitution and would follow the due process in the cases that have been filed against him. The BKU leader has been named along with other farmers leaders in FIRs filed by the Delhi Police in connection with the violence in the national capital on Republic Day.
He appealed to farmers of Haryana and Punjab to keep the protest alive at the Singhu and Tikri border and criticised the MHA order to suspend Internet at the protest sites.
BKU spokesperson Dharmendra Malik said water supply had been restored by the Ghaziabad administration but the Internet speed remained dismal through the day.
Meanwhile, the flow of farmers at the Ghazipur border continued to swell on Saturday. Two dozen women from Shamli came to the protest site carrying earthen pots with water on their heads responding to the administration’s decision to cut water supply to the protest site. Mr. Tikait had then said he would drink only water from his village.
The stream of political leaders also continued at the Ghazipur site Late in the afternoon, Indian National Lok Dal leader Abhay Chautala, who recently resigned from the Haryana Assembly in protest against the farm laws reached Ghazipur border with supporters in a fleet of SUVs. “Farmers don’t harass anybody but if somebody harasses them, they don’t spare anybody,” he said.
On Friday evening, Bhim Army Chief Chandrashekhar Azad reached the site and described Mr Tikait as his elder brother.
Earlier addressing the farmers, Mr. Tikait said he didn’t cry on Thursday. “Tikait didn’t cry and will not cry. It could be water of the fields,” he said metaphorically.
