Rakesh Tikait reaches out to Joe Biden on Twitter, seeks intervention in farm laws

Leader of the Bharatiya Kisan Union Rakesh Tikait took to Twitter and appealed to US President Joe Biden to intervene to get the Indian government to scrap the three new controversial farm laws.

He wrote, "These black laws should be repealed to save us. Please focus on our concern while meeting PM Modi." He also used the hashtag "Biden_SpeakUp4Farmers" which has been trending in India since then.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is visiting the US at the moment. The tweet was posted hours before a meeting between PM Modi and Biden. It will be the first in-person meeting of the leaders of the Quad grouping of countries whose members are the United States, Japan, Australia, and India.

Thousands of farmers have been protesting against the three farm laws enacted in September 2020 to liberalise domestic agriculture trade for a year. The union argues that the new laws will leave them at the mercy of corporations that will dictate prices. The Centre has argued that the changes will not alter the existing state of the market but free up farm trade, boost investments, and raise incomes.

Kavitha Kuruganti, a key member of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha, a platform of farm unions, said that global support is a key agenda for them. "International support for a movement this large rests on mobilising support at all levels," he told Hindustan Times.

She added that the UN has a special role to play in the matter because India was a signatory to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas. Earlier, leader Darshan Pal had reached out to the UN through a video.