Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first bilateral meeting with the U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday evening, farmer leader Rakesh Tikait raised a social media storm by appealing to Mr. Biden to focus on the farm laws brought by the Modi government.
“These black laws should be repealed to save us. Please focus on our concerns while meeting PM Modi,” tweeted Mr. Tikait, tagging @POTUS, the Twitter handle of the U.S. President.
Mr. Tikait is the national spokesperson of the Bharatiya Kisan Union and one of the foremost leaders of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha that is leading the agitation against the farm laws.
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Mr. Tikait added, “We, the farmers of India are protesting against the 3 farm laws brought by PM Modi’s govt. 700 farmers have died in the last 11 months protesting (sic)”.
This is perhaps the first time that the farmer leader has tweeted in English from his handle.
Later, Mr Tikait said agriculture was no longer a subject limited to one country. “It is an international subject. Whenever two world leaders meet, they should discuss issues related to agriculture,” he said.
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Mr. Tikait further said multinationals, including American multinationals, were guiding farm laws across the world and it was impacting the livelihood of farmers and farm labour. “So when two world leaders meet, they should discuss their impact on poor countries.”
The BKU had termed the UN Food Systems Summit hogwash and described it as a threat to people’s food security.
‘International issue’
Dharmendra Malik, media in-charge of BKU, said agriculture was an “international issue” and most laws were being made to protect the interests of the MNCs. “That’s why we have appealed to the U.S. President to focus on the farm laws as well during the talks with the PM. We haven’t asked for his intervention,” he told The Hindu .