Play all audios:
Speaking to PTI at his home in Sisauli, Muzaffarnagar district, 45-year-old Narendra also said his two brothers and the entire Tikait family would leave the protest if even smallest of any
wrongdoing is proved against even a single family member, as he rejected allegations by some quarters that they have built properties and made money from the agitation. The eldest brother
Naresh Tikait is BKU president, while Rakesh Tikait holds the position of national spokesperson of the organisation, which under Mahendra Singh Tikait’s leadership in 1988 had laid a virtual
siege to Meerut in pursuit of higher prices for sugarcane, cancellation of loans and lowering of water and electricity rates. The same year, BKU held a week-long protest in Delhi’s Boat
Club to focus on the plight of farmers. After Mahendra Singh Tikait’s death in 2011, Naresh and Tikait have been leading the main organisation in various roles, though a number of faction
groups have emerged in various parts of the country over the years. Narendra said the Centre is under any misconception that it can cull the farmers’ protest like it has “culled” other
agitations in the past using various tactics. “I am here in Sisauli but my eyes are there at the protest,” he said, adding that he keeps visiting Ghazipur border where hundreds of farmers
and BKU supporters are camping since November 2020. “This government has a misconception, probably because it never faced such kind of protest, but we have seen agitations and been part of
those for 35 years. This government only has an experience of facing smaller protests and of getting those culled through various tactics,” he said. “They cannot crush this protest by any
means. This will continue for as long as our demands are not met. This government has a tenure of three and a half years left, and we can continue the movement till the end of its term,” he
asserted.