Lucknow: In protest, the farmers once again intensified their demand for their removal. Union Minister Ajay Mishra ‘Theni’ slams farmer leader Rakesh Tikait double man (literally, ‘a man worth two pennies’), and talked about being chased by “barking dogs”.
The Kheri MP’s remarks – in a speech to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers in Lakhimpur on Monday – came after a meeting organized by thousands of farmers led by the United Kisan Morcha (SKM) and the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) of Tikait. Came a few days later. mahapanchayati Demanded the dismissal of Theni from the Union Cabinet for demanding withdrawal of cases registered against farmers in connection with last year’s violence in Lakhimpur Kheri district.
Ashish Mishra, son of junior home minister, is the prime accused in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence in October last year, when an SUV rammed into a crowd of farmers, killing four farmers and a journalist. Ashish got bail from Allahabad High Court in February, but it was Supreme Court overturned in April.
In a video of the speech, which is now going viral on social media, the minister can be heard saying: “For example, we are traveling to Lucknow. We are moving fast towards Lucknow by sitting in a car….Sometimes it happens that dogs keep barking on the roads. They are barking on the streets and at times chasing vehicles. So that is their nature. I will not say anything about this. A person behaves according to his nature, but our nature is not like this. When things come to the fore and when people gather strength to come forward, I will definitely answer every person.
Urging BJP workers to keep giving them strength, he said “no power in the world” can let them down with their support.
Mishra launched a scathing attack against Tikait saying, “I know Rakesh Tikait very well. double man (useless man)… we have seen that he contested elections twice and lost his bail every time. When a person like this opposes someone, it doesn’t make any sense… so I don’t want to reply to such people,” Teni said. Tikait contested and lost in both the 2007 UP assembly elections and the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
“There is no relevance to answer such people, but that is what keeps their politics alive… that’s how their livelihood goes,” he said. So let it run… I will reply at the right time, but I must say that I have never done anything wrong in my life.”
He added.
Read also: Tension between ‘sympathetic to BJP’ and ‘opposition support’ Tikait, the faction behind BKU split
‘Angry because his son is in jail’
Later, Tikait responds to the barbs, saying that the minister was angry because he had a son.
behind bars.
“We went with around 50,000-60,000 people… So, a person will say something in anger. His son is in jail for the last one year so obviously he will get angry. We don’t need to go on these statements Whatever we do, we do it on the ground. a liberation campaign (an independence movement) Will be driven to Lakhimpur… We stayed there for three days… now stay there for 13 days. Lakhimpur is punk (chaos),” Tikait told the media.
Thousands of farmers had gathered at Lakhimpur Kheri on the call of the SKM to participate in the 72-hour protest against the Center that ended on August 20.
Meanwhile, Mishra also took a dig at “some foolish journalists” for trying to create “confusion”.
“Many people keep asking me. There are some journalists here… There are also some foolish journalists who keep talking like this. They have nothing to do with journalism, but do wrong things and try to create confusion, But I want to say only one thing – Don’t think of me as a river of fire (Don’t think of me as rain, I am a ball of fire),” he said.
This is not the first time that the Union Minister has vented his anger on the media. In December, Mishra had allegedly abused When asked by reporters about his jailed son.
(Edited by Tony Rae)