New Delhi: Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) Spokesperson Rakesh Tikait on Thursday expressed satisfaction at the turnout of today’s tractor rally and said that they would also participate in the 26th January Republic Day Parade.
“We will participate in the parade on 26th January. Tanks will be on one side and the tractors on the other. Today’s rally was good. People will come to Delhi in large numbers on that day too to take part in the parade,” Tikait told ANI.
With another meeting scheduled to take place tomorrow, farmer leader Rajveer Singh Jadon expressed hope that the talks would have a positive outcome.
“We hope that the government saw that we are not being violent in today’s rally and carried it out in a very peaceful manner. I am hopeful that tomorrow’s meeting will have a good outcome,” he said.
Earlier in the day, farmers took out a tractor rally at the Delhi borders to protest against the three new farm laws. This rally is a rehearsal for a more massive rally they have planned for January 26 if their demands are not met.
“We are rehearsing for the Kisan Gantantra that we will celebrate on January 26,” Simranjeet, a farmer taking part in a tractor rally at Delhi’s Burari said.
The agitating farmers are taking out their tractor march on four borders of Delhi including the Eastern Peripheral Expressway and the security has been tightened up. There is heavy deployment of force at the protest sites including the areas of Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) toll plaza and Singhu border. The farmers holding tractor rally at Haryana’s Palwal are now heading towards the Singhu border.
Farmers have been protesting at different borders of the national capital since November 26 against the three newly enacted farm laws – Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020, and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.