Rakesh Tikait (born 4 June 1969) is an Indian farmer rights activist and national spokesperson of the

Bharatiya Kisan Union Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) ( English: Indian Farmers' Union) is a farmer's representative organisation in India. It was founded by Chaudhary Charan Singh from the ''Punjab Khetibari Union'' (Punjab Farming Union) which became its Punjab branc ...

(BKU). He successfully led the farmer protests in 2020-2021 to cause repeal of three farmer laws implemented by the Indian government.

Personal life

Chaudhary Rakesh Singh Tikait was born on 4 June 1969 in Sisauli town of Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh. He is the son of a prominent farmer leader and BKU co-founder late Mahendra Singh Tikait. His eldest brother is Naresh Tikait, who is the National President of the BKU. He upholds

Gandhian The followers of Mahatma Gandhi,one of the prominent figure of the Indian independence movement, are called Gandhians. Gandhi's legacy includes a wide range of ideas ranging from his dream of ideal India (or ''Rama Rajya)'', economics, environ ...

ideology.

Career

Tikait graduated with an M.A. degree from Meerut University and then did LLB after that. He joined

Delhi Police The Delhi Police (DP) is the law enforcement agency for the National Capital Territory of Delhi. Delhi Police falls under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. In 2024, the sanctioned strength of Delhi Police w ...

in 1992, as

constable A constable is a person holding a particular office, most commonly in law enforcement. The office of constable can vary significantly in different jurisdictions. ''Constable'' is commonly the rank of an officer within a police service. Other peo ...

then Sub Inspector, but left Delhi police in 19931994. After leaving the police, he joined the BKU. After the death of his father, Tikait officially joined BKU and later became its spokesperson. In 2018, Tikait was the leader of Kisan Kranti Yatra from

Haridwar Haridwar (; ; formerly Mayapuri) is a city and municipal corporation in the Haridwar district of Uttarakhand, India. With a population of 228,832 in 2011, it is the second-largest city in the state and the largest in the district. The city is s ...

, Uttrakhand to

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

. Tikait had contested the 2007 UP Assembly elections from the Khatauli seat as a candidate of the Bahujan Kisan Dal (BKD) party (with

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

support), only to finish a distant sixth. In the

2014 Indian general election General elections were held in India in nine phases from 7 April to 12 May 2014 to elect the members of the 16th Lok Sabha. With 834 million registered voters, they were the largest-ever elections in the world until being surpassed by the 2019 ...

, he fought on a

Rashtriya Lok Dal Rashtriya Lok Dal ( RLD; ) is an Indian Regionalism (politics), regional political party in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. It was founded by Chaudhary Ajit Singh, son of the former prime minister of India, Chaudhary Charan Singh in 1996 as a brea ...

ticket from Amroha Lok Sabha constituency.

2020-21 Farmers protest

In November 2020, his organization BKU joined the 2020–2021 Indian farmers' protest, demanding declaration of MSP as a legal right, exclusion of farmers from the law to curb pollution to allow burning of crops (consensus to which was reached during the sixth round of talks between the Centre and Farmer Union) and removal of the farm bills."Our biggest concern is that operations in mandis and outside would be different. While mandis would levy taxes, there would be no tax or market fee outside. The government is not abolishing the Agricultural Produce Market Committees directly. However, the mandi system enables an assured minimum support price, which will collapse gradually" said Rakesh Tikait. After violence broke out in the National Capital on 26 January (

Republic Day Republic Day is the name of a holiday in several countries to commemorate the day when they became republics. List January 1 January in Slovak Republic The day of creation of Slovak republic. A national holiday since 1993. Officially calle ...

), Delhi Police filed an FIR against Rakesh Tikait and a few other farmer leaders for their role in inciting violence on

and breach of the NOC issued by Delhi Police. On 19 November 2021, the government took the decision to repeal the bills. Both houses of Parliament successfully passed the Farm Laws Repeal Bill, 2021 on 29 November.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tikait, Rakesh 1969 births People from Muzaffarnagar district 21st-century Indian farmers Indian farmers' rights activists Gandhians Living people Leaders of 2020–2021 Indian farmers' protest Rashtriya Lok Dal politicians