How Tikait scions made a photograph go viral, reviving farmers’ stir

A photograph of Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) chief Rakesh Tikait weeping on the night of January 28 was a turning level in farmers’ protests in opposition to the Centre’s three agricultural legal guidelines pushed by means of Parliament final September. It re-energised the protest simply because it was flagging within the aftermath of the Republic Day violence in Delhi and a deliberate crackdown on the Ghazipur demonstration website.
Tikait’s son Charan Singh and nephew Gaurav, who’s BKU nationwide president Naresh Tikait’s son, have been behind the photograph that helped the farmers’ stir out of its nadir and revitalised it. The brothers not solely performed a vital position by guaranteeing that the photograph of an emotional Rakesh Tikait reaches the utmost variety of farmers by means of social media platforms and WhatsApp, however have been additionally behind mobilising greater than 10,000 farmers and political leaders for the huge mahapanchayat held in Muzzafarnagar the next day.
“Gaurav bhai and I were at the Ghazipur border with my father on January 28 when my tauji [uncle Naresh Tikait] declared at a meeting with farmers at our native place Sisauli [in Muzzafarnagar] that there was no point in continuing the agitation when the police have turned against peasants at the behest of the state and the government at the Centre. Father was deeply hurt by the decision and had an emotional burst and cried while talking to someone. While father decided to stay on for the time being at the Ghazipur protest site, we rushed to our native place and by that time the photos of a weeping Rakesh Tikait went viral, forcing tauji to backtrack and he called the mahapanchayat in Muzzafarnagar the next day,” recollects Charan.

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The 29-year-old stated quickly after listening to in regards to the mahapanchayat he and Gaurav flooded social media with an attraction to farmers to succeed in the GIC floor in Muzaffarnagar in giant numbers. “The crowd that assembled at the ground was a massive one. It was beyond our wildest expectations. I do not know whether we will win the ongoing battle for repealing the farm laws, but at least we have managed to demonstrate the solidarity among members of the agrarian community for the cause. This assembly at GIC was minuscule compared to the crowd at the Boat club led by my grandfather Baba Mahendra Singh Tikait,” he added.
His grandfather’s historic seven-day sit-in at Dehli’s Boat membership on October 25, 1988, by which almost 5 lakh farmers participated, compelled the then Rajiv Gandhi authorities to just accept all 35 calls for of the demonstrators.

“The welfare of farmers is in my DNA. I was born on December 23, 1991, the birth anniversary of our God and former Prime Minister Chaudhary Charan Singh that is celebrated as the National Farmer’s Day by the country. My father was busy in Dehli for preparations of Chaudhary saheb’s birth anniversary when he was informed about being blessed with a son. Elated, he immediately named me Charan Singh, and with the family’s surname my name is now a tribute to the two greatest leaders who fought for the cause of peasants throughout their life,” Charan Singh Tikait tells The Indian Express.
Former Samajwadi Party chief and Meerut-based social activist Gopal Agarwal says, “After the death of former Prime Minister Chaudhary Charan Singh on May 29, 1987, Baba Mahendra Singh Tikait emerged as the new messiah of farmers in western UP. On October 17, 1986, he formed a non-political organisation named the Bhartiya Kisan Union to protect the interests of farmers. Baba Tikait has headed so many movements and as a result of these agitations, he was arrested and gone to jail several times. Now, the onus to protect the interests of farmers rests with Naresh and Rakesh Tikait and their scions Gaurav and Charan Singh.”