When Ghulam Nabi Azad narrated in front of PM Modi 32 years old story of Mahendra Tikait and Congress' clash

The agitation continues from the road to the Parliament on agricultural laws and the peasant movement. There was a lot of uproar in the Rajya Sabha on the issue of farmers even today. However, when Congress MP Ghulam Nabi Azad got an opportunity to speak on this, he told the Modi government a lot about the situation and movements of farmers from pre-independence to the present. In front of PM Modi in the Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad referred to the confrontational situation of Congress with Rakesh Tikait's father Mahendra Tikait, and said that there is no use in fighting the farmers.

In the Rajya Sabha, Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said that this is not the first time the deadlock between the farmers and the government has been created. For hundreds of years, the peasants have been fighting for their rights, fighting, sometimes against landlords, sometimes against feudalism. I want to mention some important movements, in which the government finally had to bow before the farmers in the era of Angraja. He said that the strength of farmers is the biggest power in India and we cannot reach any conclusion by fighting them. I keep some pages of history here. He also referred to Gandhi's Satyagraha during this period.

Ghulam Nabi Azad recalled the farmer agitation by Rakesh Tikait's father Mahendra Singh Tikait, saying that in October 1988, the Congress party wanted to hold a rally at the Boat Club. In those days it was allowed to hold a public meeting. At that time Rajiv Gandhi was the Prime Minister and I was the Union Minister, in-charge of UP, and in charge of the rally. Trains were coming from all over the country for the rally and Mahendra Tikait's movement was going on in Uttar Pradesh for many days. But when it came to the papers that a Congress rally was going to be held at the Boat Club, then Mahendra Tikait Ji traveled to Delhi.

He further said that a day before the rally, Mahendra Tikait Ji was sitting in a boat club with 50 thousand people carrying beds, cots, hookahs, and grains. We were surprised. I was sitting with the Prime Minister and he said that all these should be removed, but I said that we do not have to fight with the farmers. We changed our rally venue to Red Fort. We did not announce. Where trains were to come and people were coming, hundreds of people were put in place so that people could be brought to Red Fort instead of Boat Club. We did not fight, we held ourselves back and as a result, Mahendra Tikait returned to himself after two or three days.

He said that farmers provide food to 130 crore people. Without them we are nothing. These farmers give two times of bread to a person to be alive. What fight do we have to fight with them? We have more fronts to fight. Pakistan and China stand as enemies on our border. We will compete together. We are with you, the whole country is with us and our party is with you. China and Pakistan look with their eyes, so we are with you, but what for the farmers.

I request PM Modi that we do not have to fight with the farmers. My request to my government is to withdraw these three laws and some people are lost, make a committee for them. We condemn the 26 January incident. Whatever happened at the Red Fort should not have happened. It is against democracy and law and order. The insult of the national flag cannot be tolerated. Action should be taken against the guilty, but the innocent should not be implicated.