Farmers protesting against three controversial central agricultural laws would block the border between Delhi and its satellite town of Noida in Uttar Pradesh, according to Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) chief Rakesh Tikait.
Yes, the Delhi-Noida border will be closed. Tikait, BKU spokesperson said, 'The committee is yet to decide on a deadline.' Since the beginning of the unrest, Tikait and his followers have camped on the Delhi-UP Ghazipur frontier.
The Sanyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), an umbrella body of more than 40 farmers' unions, has been leading demonstrations against the three laws on Delhi's outskirts since November 26 of last year.
Following violent clashes between a section of farmers and the Delhi Police in the national capital on Republic Day, farmers belonging to the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Bhanu) vacated the Delhi-Noida Chilla border on January 27 after blocking it for 58 days.
Tikait broke down the next day when the police pushed in to clear the Ghazipur border. The video of his tears went viral, leading farmers from neighbouring states to join the BKU chief at the protest site, getting the number of protesters back up after the abuse on Jan. 26.
Since then, Tikait has become the movement's public face, speaking at'mahapanchayats' (farmers' meetings) in cities around the world. He also recently visited West Bengal, where he spoke to a mahapanchayat in the Nandigram assembly constituency, where chief minister Mamata Banerjee would run for re-election, and urged voters not to vote for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), whose government at the Centre passed the legislations last September.
Before a legal guarantee on Minimum Support Price (MSP) is issued and the three laws are repealed, the BKU chief has repeatedly cautioned that ‘thousands of tractors will flood Delhi’ and ‘Parliament would be surrounded.
