On Friday, November 19, the federal government agreed to repeal the three problematic agriculture regulations after 358 days of demonstrations. Several farmer leaders and farmer groups banded together to form the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) and led the demonstrations that began on November 26, last year. While some organizations withdrew from the protests, others persisted and kept their ground.
Here’s a look at some of the prominent figures that have been at the forefront of the protests.
Rakesh Tikait
Rakesh Tikait, the self-proclaimed farmer leader and the face of the farmers’ protest at the Delhi border, was born into a middle-class family and was a policeman in the Delhi police before opening businesses in four states and thirteen cities. His fortune is believed to be over $80 million!
Tikait is the son of the renowned agricultural leader Mahendra Singh Tikait, who started the BKU branch in Uttar Pradesh. Tikait continued to urge demonstrators while capturing the attention of TV cameras, from planting flowers next to the iron nail at the Ghazipur protest site to washing roads at other locations.
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Rakesh Tikait is an odd foe of the ruling coalition at the Centre. The 51-year-old Delhi Police constable-turned-farmer leader acknowledges voting for the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Most people in his Jat-dominated hamlet of Sisauli in Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar district felt the same way, not least since its candidate, Union minister Sanjeev Kumar Balyan comes from the same Baliyan Khap (clan) as Rakesh’s elder brother Naresh Tikait.
In 2014, he ran for Lok Sabha from Amroha and earned 9,539 (0.88 per cent) of the votes cast (10,82,480). Amroha district has a rural population of around 50% (9,20,000 people) and a literacy rate of 50.21 per cent. Clearly, Amroha’s farmers did not vote for ‘Kisan Leader’ Rakesh Tikait.
In the uproar over the Narendra Modi government’s agricultural reform policies, farmers from Tikait’s Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) outnumbered those mobilized by his competitor V.M. Singh of the Rashtriya Kisan Mazdoor Sangathan at the Delhi-UP Ghazipur border protest location. Some argue that Tikait was “sponsored” by the Centre in order to neutralize the more aggressive farmer unions from Punjab and Haryana.
Rakesh Tikait was born on June 4, 1969, with Saturn in an unfavourable position. As a result, despite putting in a lot of effort, he may struggle to attain success. Tikait then challenged the government to abolish the agriculture restrictions, but he did not receive full credit. Not only that, but the farmer leader may face a difficult period in December. He may have health problems, and as a result, he may suffer financially. Tikait may form a new political party in 2024.
Joginder Singh Ugrahan,
Joginder Singh Ugrahan, a 75-year-old former army officer, leads the Bhartiya Kisan Union Ekta (Ugrahan), an organization he founded in 2002 to address the concerns of Punjab’s small-scale farmers.
Since November 2020, Ugrahan has been a part of the demonstrations and has led agitations throughout Punjab.
Balbir Singh Rajewal
Rajewal is a well-known individual in Punjab who formed his own faction of the BKU after splitting from the main unit.
Rajewal, 77, is the senior-most leader in SKM and has played a significant part in the movement. While he never had a political post, he is believed to have advised the Akalis on how to improve agricultural practices in Punjab.
His seniority came to help when it came to bringing the various farmer unions together.
Dr Darshan Pal
Dr Darshan Pal, a 70-year-old MD in anaesthesia, was also instrumental in rallying the farmers to continue their protests. Pal, the president of the Krantikari Kisan Union Punjab, has been advocating for farm loan forgiveness for numerous years.
Although his organization only joined the protests later, he was critical in organizing operations at the protest venues and guaranteeing everyone’s safety.
Gurnam Singh Chaduni
The 66-year-old is from Haryana’s Kurukshetra district and is the leader of the BKU (Charuni) faction in the state. He organizes numerous farmer agitational programmes in Haryana and coordinates with farmer activists from other states. In 2004, he created the BKU faction. It was once linked with BKU/Tikait, but it is now an autonomous organization.
Singh is said to have been organizing protests against the agriculture rules. Gurnam Singh Chaduni, an ‘agriculturist and commission agent (Arhtiya),’ was another ‘Kisan Leader’ at the rally. He ran in the 2019 Haryana Assembly elections from the Ladwa Rural (General) constituency and earned 1,307 (0.95 per cent) votes! Even farmers did not vote for the self-proclaimed ‘Kisan Leader.’
His fellow farmers’ leaders described him as deeply committed to the farmer’s cause. One of the faction-BKU leaders stated that he was not scared to raise concerns for local farmers, but that everything should be done under his supervision. Shishpal Singh, a resident of Charuni village, said he is 32 years old today and has witnessed Gurnam stage protests, attended Kisan rallies, and mobilized support since the beginning. “He is a Jat Sikh and has the complete respect of the village,” he stated.
