Farmer leader remained untouched by electoral politics, leaves vacuum
At the height of the farmers’ agitation in Meerut in 1988, Mahendra Singh Tikait was worried that his protest wasn’t getting adequate coverage in the media. Then one day, a small piece appeared in a vernacular daily. Tikait held aloft copies of the said paper, goading his supporters to regularly read the daily, as it seemed to be supportive of the cause.
Legend has it, that within days the circulation of the daily rose manifold in western Uttar Pradesh. Such was the sway Tikait, who died last week, had on farmers in western Uttar Pradesh.
Born in 1935 in Sisauli village of Muzaffarnagar district, Tikait shot to prominence with his protest against the then Vir Bahadur Singh-led Congress government in Uttar Pradesh against rising power rates in 1987. The agitation, a first of its kind mass movement by farmers, without any political dimensions, was the beginning of many such protests he held over the years.
The then state government was not only forced to concede to his demands, but also acknowledge the growing influence of Tikait and his Bhartiya Kisan Union, an apolitical body of farmers. Tikait was one leader who could bring the mightiest political force to its knees with his earthy protest methods. Years later, the entire UP administration watched helplessly as villagers laid siege to his home, preventing the police from arresting Tikait for his allegedly uncharitable remarks against then chief minister Mayawati.
In his heydays of the late 1980s and early 1990s, Mahendra Singh Tikait could influence governments in Delhi with a single call. Many would recall his agitation against the Dunkel trade proposals in the national capital in March 1993, when the entire city was brought to a standstill by millions of farmers converging from all parts of the country.
More From This Section
POLITICAL DISTANCE
Tikait with his hand-woven dhoti, Gandhi cap and kurta, was a quintessential farmer leader, who lived among them, spoke their language and seldom dreamt of politically cashing on his popularity. Though politicians wanted to get close to him because of his apparent sway over millions of farmers of west UP, Tikait never allowed them to dictate terms to him. His common refrain was that all parties are on the same side.
In 1990, then Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mulayam Singh came to meet him at his Sisauli village, along with then Deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal, a farmer leader in his own right. But, Tikait refrained from going with them; he instead obliquely supported the Bharatiya Janta Party, asking farmers to vote from their heart and in the name of Lord Ram. His bonhomie with the BJP didn’t last long.
Tikait kept dabbling with politicians from time to time, be it Narasimha Rao or Mulayam Singh Yadav or his attempts at forging a non-BJP, non-Congress alternative, but never was a die-hard politician that many wanted him to become.
He always held that he was first and foremost a leader of farmers. His sons, though, tried to enter into electoral politics from Khatauli in Uttar Pradesh in 2007. They were unsuccessful, again proving that people did not accept Tikait as a politician. He was more in sync with his image of a fighting farmer leader.
Tikait’s critics say that though he was a good rabble rouser, he lacked a coherent economic vision for the agriculture sector and largely focused his fight for the rich farmers of western UP.
LEAVES VACUUM
Unfortunately, the firebrand farmer leader was rendered largely ineffective in the last decade, a time when Indian agriculture was perhaps passing through its worst crisis ever. The fruits of the Green Revolution, which had peaked during Tikait’s golden days as farmer leader, had started to subside. Farm lands were giving way to industrialisation and agriculture was no longer remunerative, forcing rising numbers to quit their land.
He died at 76, at a time when farmers in Greater Noida were fighting for justice to get fair compensation for land being acquired by the Uttar Pradesh Government. Many political leaders made overtures to farmers following their pitched battles with police. A political leader of the prominence of Tikait was, however, not there to provide guidance to the agitation.