The farmers’ protests that began as an agitation by a minuscule number of farmers against the revolutionary farm laws was quickly hijacked by political opportunists and vested interests groups. The biggest name to grab the spotlight in the protests has been none other than Rakesh Tikait who has become the face of the agitation. However, Tikait, who calls himself a farmer doesn’t share the same credentials as the other protestors coming from modest walks of life, albeit he is one of the richest guys going around in the protest, only looking to chart a roadmap for his political career in the future.
According to the news reports, Rakesh Tikait’s assets are worth as much as Rs 80 crores. Tikait’s assets are spread across four states in the country viz. Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi, and Maharashtra. Furthermore, these assets traverse 13 cities of the country, including Muzaffarnagar, Lalitpur, Jhansi, Lakhimpur Kheri, Bijnor, Badaun, Delhi, Noida, Ghaziabad, Dehradun, Roorkee, Haridwar, and Mumbai.
Such is the money-might of Tikait that he owns a range of businesses like petrol pumps, brick kilns, showrooms, etc. The BKU leader has two daughters — Seema and Jyoti. The latter lives in Australia and had reportedly organised a rally in support of the protesting farmers in Melbourne on February 8.
Some reports suggest that Rakesh Tikait has kept a deer, which is illegal. According to the law, catching and capturing any wild animal including deer in India is a punishable offence. The guilty can be punished for seven years or a fine of Rs 25,000 be imposed on them or both.
Tikait is the son of revolutionary farm leader Mahendra Singh Tikait, who was one of the founding members of the BKU. And it appears like Rakesh is only surviving on the accomplishments of his father to further his electoral reach, come the next assembly elections
On the eve of the Republic Day, Tikait had given a hint to his sinister plans of creating chaos and mayhem across the National Capital. Reported by TFI, Tikait had asked the farmers to block roads in cities and towns where ever they were leading the tractors.
Read more: Napoleon met his end in Waterloo, Napoleon lite Rakesh Tikait wants Noida to be his Waterloo
What happened afterward was for everyone to see as Delhi descended into complete anarchy which was the doing of Tikait. The supposed Farmers’ leader did not take any responsibility for the chain of events that occurred on January 26 – instead, he went in the corner and started crying like a kid, claiming that the protests will go on and reiterated that the laws must be repealed. He also threatened to commit suicide and said there was a conspiracy underway to murder farmers.
Read more: Liberals have severe heartache as Rakesh Tikait suffers a major meltdown and cries like a baby
Tikait’s misery piled on when he was slapped with UAPA by the Delhi Police. Having been charged with the UAPA, Rakesh Tikait’s hopes of resuscitating his political career are now nothing more than far fetched dreams. To be a political leader with a UAPA background is simply impossible, and Tikait’s dreams of outgrowing his present self have been shattered.
More recently, Tikait revealed that the kisan morcha and the agitation as a whole had an ‘alliance’ in at least 73 countries across the world – surther proving the suspicions of many that the farmers’ protests, centered around the border of Delhi, have large-scale international backing.
Tikait is only participating in the farmer’s protests to give a fillip to his political career which was heading nowhere despite raking up millions in his bank account balance. Money cannot buy everything but it sure can make one face of a protest.