Kumaraswamy flays police for booking case against farmers' leader Tikait

Bengaluru: A day after Shivamogga police registered a case against Bhartiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait on charges of delivering a provocative speech, former chief minister and JD(S) leader H.D. Kumaraswamy lashed out at the police.

"The police have booked a case against Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait in Shivamogga and Haveri on the charges of delivering provocative speeches. This is nothing but an attempt to silence the voice of farmers," Kumaraswamy said

Echoing the sentiments of the organisers of the Mahapanchayat who said that police remained mum when many senior BJP leaders including party State president Nalin Kumar Kateel, minister K.S. Eshwarappa, MP Shobha Karrandlaje made provocative statements, Kumaraswamy questioned, "If they really wanted to book cases against those indulging in provocative speeches, how many cases should have been booked against BJP leaders by now?"

Voicing his concern for the farmers, the JD(S) leader pointed, "It is well within the rights granted by the Constitution to take up struggles and to give a call for struggle. He did not call for physical attacks or killing. The case against Tikait should be withdrawn immediately."

Tikait had urged the farmers to intensify protests against the farm laws and block entries into Bengaluru with tractors.

Quoting the farmer's leader statement that farmers need not come to Delhi to voice their protest against the farm laws. They can launch a struggle here itself like the one in Delhi, Kumaraswamy said that there was no provocative element in Tikait's call. "It is nothing but misinterpretation of the statement," the JD(S) leader said.

The farmers' protest in the national capital had its echoes in Bengaluru. The protest led by Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president D.K. Shivakumar in January against the three farm laws was a huge success. The protest march was taken from the Sangolli Rayanna statue to the Freedom Park.