No Change in Demands, Ready to Talk If Centre Invites Us: Tikait

Tikait said that the government should invite the Samyukt Kisan Morcha for a discussion.

File photo of Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait.

(Photo: PTI)

Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait on Sunday, 11 April, said that the farmers protesting the contentious new farm laws are ready to talk if the Centre invites them for a discussion, reported PTI.

He also said that the farmers’ demands remain unchanged and the talks would resume from where it had ended on 22 January.

Tikait added that the government should invite the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) for a discussion.

"The talks with the government would resume from the same point where it had ended on 22 January. The demands are also the same -- all three ''black'' farm laws should be repealed, a new law made to ensure MSP (minimum support price) for crops," Tikait was quoted as saying in a statement issued by BKU media in charge Dharmendra Malik.

Tikait’s remarks comes after Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij urged Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar to resume talks with the protesting farmers who have been camping at the three border points of Delhi at Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur since November 2020.

Showing concern over the rise in COVID-19 cases in Haryana and throughout the country, Vij said he is worried about the farmers who have been protesting on the state borders with Delhi.

The last formal dialogue between the protestors and the government took place on 22 January. A ''tractor parade'' was carried out by the farmers in Delhi on 26 January which took a violent turn in the national capital.

(With inputs from PTI.)