Protesting farmers will sell produce at Parliament complex if required: Rakesh Tikait

Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait on Tuesday said that farmers, if required, will sell their produce at the Parliament complex as part of their protest against the Centre's new agri laws.

Farmers will not be divided, Tikait said while addressing a 'Kisan Mahapanchayat' in Jaipur's Vidhyadhar Nagar stadium.

"If required, farmers will go to Parliament to sell their crops," he said and called upon them to be ready to move towards Delhi whenever required.

Hundreds of farmers are camping at Delhi's borders since November last year demanding that the Centre repeal the three contentious farm laws.

The farmer leader said that a nationwide movement against the farm laws has started and youths have a big responsibility now.

Tikait said that the country will be saved when slogans of 'Jai Ram' and 'Jai Bhim' are raised together.

However, he cut short his speech as the weather turned bad.

Earlier, social activist and Samyukt Kisan Morcha leader Yogendra Yadav said that farmers of the country want legal guarantee for minimum support price.

Enacted in September, the three farm laws have been projected by the Centre as major reforms in the agriculture sector that will remove the middlemen and allow farmers to sell their produce anywhere in the country.

The protesting farmers, on the other hand, have expressed apprehension that the new laws would pave the way for eliminating the safety cushion of the minimum support price and do away with the "mandi" (wholesale market) system, leaving them at the mercy of big corporates.

Tikait, on the occasion, also announced appointment of Jat leader Rajaram Meel as the state president of Bharatiya Kisan Union and Jhabar Singh as national secretary.