Farmers: The BJP's Jat Headache

Rakesh Tikait’s impassioned appeal has resuscitated the farmers’ movement and given the Jats a leader to rally around, making the government’s task that much more difficult

- Ashish Misra And Anilesh S. Mahajan

If the events of this year’s Republic Day— when lumpen youth hijacked what had hitherto been a determined yet peaceful farmers’ protest and led a siege of the iconic Red Fort—threatened to derail the movement, Rakesh Tikait’s tears on Beating Retreat Day (January 28)—when police tried to force-clear protesters from Ghazipur—put it right back on track. His emotional outburst not only re-energised the movement, it also led to something more momentous—bringing the Jats of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana together in solidarity with the Punjab farmer, undermining the central government’s insinuations that the movement was confined to Punjab, that it was being used by Khalistani forces to further their own radical agenda and was the work of ‘andolanjeevis’, professional protesters who live off agitations.

Before long, Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) president Chaudhary Ajit Singh, son of the legendary Chaudhary Charan Singh, buried his long-standing differences with the sons of Mahendra Singh Tikait, the renowned farmer leader of UP. The Tikait brothers, the elder Naresh, president of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), and Rakesh, its national spokesperson, were widely believed to have been behind Singh’s defeat from Muzaffarnagar in the 2019 Lok Sabha election. The rivalry ran deep till very recently—for instance, instead of attending the BKU dharna on the Ghazipur border, Ajit Singh’s son and RLD general secretary Jayant Chaudhary attended the farmers’ dharna in Baraut in Baghpat district. Tikait’s passionate appeal on January 28 changed all that, with Chaudhary tweeting in support the same night.