Mahendra Singh Tikait was one of those great personalities who ruled people’s hearts with their hard work. He was a simpleton who inspired and led lakhs of farmers, said chief minister Harish Rawat while addressing a programme organised by the Bhartiya Kisan Union on the occasion of Tikait’s 79th birth anniversary at the Parade Ground on Monday.
Rawat said that in his political career he had met several politicians with strong platforms and party backing but Tikait was a leader of substance who needed no such platform to be heard. Referring to the Muzaffarnagar riots, Rawat said that Tikait’s soul would have been most perturbed by this for he believed that farmers’ only religion was farming. The CM announced withdrawal of cases registered against the workers of farmers’ union during the farmers’ protest in the state. The CM announced that the State Government has decided to develop a memorial to Tikait at Haridwar.
He said, “When the UPA Government was in power, the growth rate of agriculture sector had increased from one percent to four per cent. Sugar mills were given the provision of soft loan. But, the current government at Centre has spread a wave of uncertainty. There has been a very nominal increase in the support price of wheat, paddy, pulses and oilseeds. The farmers’ might have to pay a price for union governments’ uncertainty in sugar and sugarcane,” he said. BKU national president Naresh Tikait, Uttarakhand PCC chief Kishore Upadhyaya and others were also present on the occasion.