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Mahendra Singh Tikait: Voice Of India’s Peasants

By MuraleeDharan Raghavan

22 May, 2011
The Verdict Weekly

Mahendra Singh Tikait was a down-to-earth man who fought against
corporate and large-scale interests in the farm sector, vehemently protested the
World Trade Organization agreement and agricultural subsidies in
Europe and America

The vanguard of many farmers’ agitations in Uttar Pradesh Mahendra
Singh Tikait, union leader and founder of Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU)
would be treated as an end of era in the farmers' politics in the
sugarcane-rich region of western UP. An apolitical person till the
end, Tikait, who died at his residence in Sisauli village in
Muzaffarnagar district last week, was at the leading personality of
many farmers’ agitations in UP as well as in the national capital.
Though he always fought for the farmers’ rights, Tikait was often
criticised by his opponents for propagating the cause of the kulaks
(rich farmers). His decline in the late nineties and the beginning of
the present century was marked by divisions in the BKU.
Tikait, who spearheaded several movements for peasants’ rights died
due to bone cancer.

76-year-old Tikait, had been suffering from bone cancer since last
year and died at the residence of his son and BKU general secretary
Rakesh Tikait in Muzaffarnagar. He is survived by four sons and two
daughters. His wife had died earlier.

A popular leader among farmers, Tikait had led a number of mass kisan
movements against the state and central governments to support the
rights of the farmers. The BKU had in 1988 laid a virtual siege of
Meerut in pursuit of higher prices for sugarcane, cancellation of
loans and lowering of water and electricity rates. That same year he
had organised a week-long protest in Delhi’s Boat Club to focus on the
plight of farmers. Tikait courted controversy in 2008 when he was
arrested and later released on bail for allegedly making derogatory
and caste based remarks against Chief Minister Mayawati. Tikait was
arrested several times during his farmers' agitations and the latest
being in February 2000 in Moradabad while on his way to hold a
panchayat in Lucknow. Tikait, a Jat by caste, inherited the leadership
of Baliyan Khap at the age of 8.

Since Tikait and his struggle for the farmers’ cause coincided with
the period when the farmers’ politics in the region was on the wane
following the demise of the former Prime Minister, Chaudhary Charan
Singh, he was often described as the “real legatee” of the late
farmers' leader. Such was the BKU leader’s clout that he was sought to
be wooed by almost all the political parties starting from the Janata
Dal, the Congress, the Samajwadi Party and even the Bahujan Samaj
Party prior to the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections.

The BKU leader rose to prominence in 1986 when he led a long-drawn-out
dharna by the farmers at Shamli power house in Muzaffarnagar against
the hike in power rates by the Congress government headed by Bir
Bahadur Singh. The former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, who had
mastered the technique of tiring out the agitationists and opponents,
met his match in Tikait. The power rates were reviewed and it was only
after they were lowered that the dharna was called off.

A couple of years later, the BKU leader again led a dharna by farmers,
this time in protest against the rape and murder of a Muslim girl in
Bhopa tehsil of Muzaffarnagar district. Demanding justice for the
slain girl’s family members, the farmers’ dharna beside a canal on the
Muzaffarnagar-Bhopa road lasted for about 40 days, although the girl’s
killers were never arrested.

However, Tikait’s struggle for the farmers' cause suffered a setback
in 1989 when six Dalits were allegedly killed by Jats belonging to the
splinter group of BKU, led by his opponent Chaudhary Harpal Singh in
Bhopa. But he re-emerged in the State Assembly and Lok Sabha
elections in December 1989 that led to the formation of the Janata Dal
governments headed by V P Singh government at the Centre and Mulayam
Singh Yadav in the State. Mulayam, who headed the Lok Dal (B), became
the Chief Minister only after beating back a determined bid by the Lok
Dal (A) president, Ajit Singh. The two Lok Dals merged to form the
Janata Dal government, but since the majority of the MLAs in the
Mulayam Singh-government were from Lok Dal (A) and elected from
constituencies in western Uttar Pradesh their loyalties were with
their region (read Tikait ) and Ajit Singh.

So, when Mulayam Singh thwarted the BKU leader’s attempt to stage a
farmers’ mahapanchayat in Lucknow on July 15, 1990 and had him
arrested, about 70 ( Lok Dal-A) MLAs threatened to resign. Tikait was
later released. He remained a factor in western UP politics for the
rest of the decade. Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh has condoled the
death Tikait, decribing him as a “fiercely independent man” whose work
had a powerful influence across the country. “Chaudhary Tikait’s
commitment to the welfare of farmers and to rural India was deep and
unswerving. His work was a powerful influence across the country and
inspired the formation of many other organisations devoted to the
cause of farmers,” the prime minister said in his condolence message
to the family.

“Chaudhary Tikait was a fiercely independent man who resisted the pull
of politics all his life. His work, his courage of conviction and his
simplicity made him a unique leader who will be deeply missed in the
years ahead,” he added.

In a message to Tikait’s eldest son Naresh Pal Tikait, Ms Krisshna
Arjun, founder president of Rajiv Gandhi Memorial Education Society
(Regd) and publisher, managing editor of The Independent Media of
India, expressed her deep shock and grief about the demise of Tikait,
who stood for the needy farmers all the time. Ms Arjun prayed for
peace of the departed soul and offered his condolences to Tikait’s
family, friends and followers in the message. Speaking to THE VERDICT
over telephone, food and trade policy analyst Dr Devinder Sharma, who
has known Tikait since his early days, reasoned that his lack of
exposure to geopolitical disputes and their technical nature perhaps
did not encourage him to think beyond the basic issues of procurement
price.

Speaking to THE VERDICT over telephone, the former Prime Minister, H D
Deve Gowda, has said he was “deeply shocked and saddened” to hear
about Tikait’s death. Gowda, the Janata Dal (Secular) president added
that Tikait was a grass roots-level farmers' leader, who fought
incessantly for the cause of ryots without any expectations and desire
for power or pelf. “After Chaudhury Charan Singh’s death, Tikait
emerged as the “messiah” for the farmers of western UP and the voice
of India’s peasants. In his death, the nation had lost a selfless,
uncompromising and illustrious crusader for the cause of farmers and
the rural areas, and the farming community a courageous champion,
Gowda said.

While condoling the sad demise of Tikait, Union agricultural minister
Sharad Pawar, said that the interests of the farming community were
close to the heart of the popular kisan leader and Tikait always stood
with the farmers on all issues concerning them. “The interests of the
farming community were close to the heart of the popular kisan leader
and he always stood with the farmers on all issues concerning them. We
will be deprived of his valuable advice and views on matters relating
to agriculture,” said Pawar. Tikait’s death has also have been
condoled by chief ministers including Narendra Modi, Nitish Kumar,
Yeddyurappa, Kumari Mayawati and Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh
Yadav, former BJP president, Rajnath Singh, Ajit Singh and prominent
politicians and intellectuals all over the country.

The writer is editor-in-chief of THE VERDICT – of the reader for the
reader, published by The Independent Media of India, Mumbai. He can
be contacted at email: [email protected] and [email protected]




 


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