Bharatiya Kisan union leader Rakesh Tikait said Centre should catch “anti-national/Maoist elements” present, if any, in farmers’ protests as Centre has brought the allegation.

A day after the government said that the farmers’ protest is being misused by some “Leftist, Maoist, anti-social elements”, Bharatiya Kisan Union national spokesperson Rakesh Tikait said protesting farmers have no idea of any such stray element in their protest. Central intelligence agencies should catch them, he said. “Central Intelligence should catch them. If people of a banned organization are roaming amid us, put them behind bars. We haven’t found any such person here, if we do we’ll send them away,” Tikait told ANI.
Amid the ongoing stalemate between the Centre and farmers, which went a notch higher on Saturday with protesters, Union railways, food and consumer affairs minister Piyush Goyal brought direct charges of the protest getting derailed.
“People of India are watching, seeing what is happening, observing how across the country Leftist-Maoists are not finding any support and therefore they are trying to hijack this farmers agitation and trying misuse this platform for their own agenda,” Goyal tweeted.
The farmers have maintained from the beginning that their protest is apolitical though their call for Bharat Bandh garnered massive support from most of the opposition and regional political parties. No politician has been allowed to speak at the stage at the key protest site at Singhu.
However, on December 10, many supporters at Tikri border — another site of the protest — displayed posters of Umar Khalid and Susha Bharadwaj. Some supporters were observing Human Rights Day, union leaders have said.