Tikait lives in a spacious house in Sisauli near Muzaffarnagar. Cows and buffaloes are tied to pegs at one end of a large open area; Several vehicles carrying Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) flags are parked nearby. Visitors to the Tikait residence help themselves with a hookah placed between two bunk beds and several chairs. Near the courtyard is the living room, a large room with 11 bunk beds, where visitors from afar can rest. The large room has a large cutout of BKU founder Mahendra Singh Tikait, who died 10 years ago. At the far end of the room rests his small, garlanded picture.
The Samadhi of Mahendra Singh Tikait is situated at a short distance from the house with statues of not only the late farmer leader, but also of Chaudhary Charan Singh and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.
“I wanted to join the army. I played kabaddi and hockey in my younger days. However, when I could not join the Army, I joined the Delhi Police,” says Rakesh Tikait, the younger son of Mahendra Singh Tikait and national spokesperson of BKU. “However, being in the police was contrary to the objectives of the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh, which was protesting in Delhi in those days. So, I left the police and found my calling in the farmers’ struggles,” he added. After spending a few days at the farmers’ protest site near the Ghazipur border, Tikait was on his way back to Lakhimpur Kheri on October 11, when Outlook spoke to him.
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Rakesh Tikait has been at the center of two big moments in the ongoing farmers’ protests this year. The first was on the eve of 28 January, when his emotional fervor almost overnight reinvigorated the movement against the three agricultural laws. The second happened last week, when his intervention (and a final settlement with the UP government) is said to have brought a very tense situation under control after four farmers were reportedly crushed by a car driven by Ashish Mishra. . Union Minister Ajay Kumar Mishra at Lakhimpur Kheri.
A room at the Tikait residence in Sisauli, Muzaffarnagar
For Tikait, the matter is not over with the UP government agreeing to pay compensation to the families of the deceased farmers. Tikait said, ‘We want that Union Minister Ajay Kumar Mishra should be sacked so that he can also be arrested. And on October 26, there will be a Kisan Mahapanchayat in Lucknow.
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Tikat comes from a clan (Khap) of Jats called Baliyan Khap. It is the largest Jat Khap of Uttar Pradesh and is spread over 84 villages. Khaps are exogamous and claim to be descendants of a common ancestor. The head of the khap is a hereditary chaudhary, on whose death his eldest son takes over as the chaudhary of the khap. After the death of Mahendra Singh Tikait, his eldest son Naresh Tikait became the Chowdhury of Ballia Khap. Rakesh Tikait is his younger brother. There are four brothers in the joint family, all of whom live in Tikat residence in Sisauli.
Rakesh’s younger brother Narendra Tikait shared a legend about his surname. “Our ancestor, the then Chaudhari of Balyan Khap, had helped King Harshavardhana in a war. The king was so impressed by the valor of Ballia Khap that he applied tilak on the forehead of Chaudhary with his blood. Since then our family is known as Tikait.
Rakesh Tikait takes me to a room on the ground floor which was once used by Mahendra Singh Tikait. There is a large picture of the late farmer leader in the simply furnished room. “This flame,” he says, pointing to a flame burning at the bottom of the photo, “was lit by my father in 1987. It burns to this day. People come and offer us desi ghee, whose used to kindle this flame.”
On the night of 3 October, when the police did not allow any leader of the opposition to reach Lakhimpur Kheri, Rakesh Tikait reached the spot. By the next afternoon, they had reached an agreement with the state government on behalf of the families of the four deceased farmers. The terms of the agreement were: an FIR against the minister’s son Ashish Mishra, Rs 45 lakh to the families of the dead and a job each, and Rs 10 lakh to the injured. Ajay Kumar Mishra has denied that his son was present at the time of the incident.
View of Tikat’s ancestral house from the front courtyard
Violence broke out soon after the incident, in which farmers allegedly thrashed three people, including BJP workers and Hariom Mishra, the driver of the Union minister. Later, the body of a journalist was also found on the spot, taking the death toll to eight. Tikait spoke to the families of the slain farmers and convinced them to accept the offer negotiated by him. He also pacified the troubled crowd of farmers and ensured that the crisis did not deepen. Tikait acknowledged that the Uttar Pradesh administration was intent on holding talks with him and says that, as a person who has inherited the culture of the Khaps, he believes in raising his voice for his rights. He did not back down an inch from the demand which, however, ignited the protest of the farmers. “They have to withdraw three agriculture laws. We are not going to back down,” he says firmly.
People present in the house including Narendra Tikait and some visitors say that Rakesh Tikait is strict in his habits and disciplined in daily life. “My brother wakes up every morning at 4 am and prays. He is a devotee of Lord Shiva,” says Narendra Tikait. “The secret of his efficiency is that he is quick to make decisions and doesn’t waste time.” He says that his elder brother Rakesh only eats home cooked food, does not watch movies and never eats in hotels. They say that Rakesh stays away from spicy and oily food and avoids cold drinks. An elderly farmer sitting next to Narendra Tikait says that Rakesh stops people from smoking in closed rooms. “Once I smoked inside a room in which he was also present. He told me I spoiled his day,” says the farmer, his cheeks wrinkled and he smiles.
Asked to respond to this picture of himself, Rakesh Tikait says, “Usse kaho photo khinchwayega aur patrakaron se zyaada baat karega to kheti na ho paayegi (Tell him that if he gets his pictures clicked and talks more to reporters, he will not be able to do farming).
After much hype about Mahendra Singh Tikait’s ability to mobilize farmers, the last two decades saw a decline in the fortunes of BKU. However, the current agrarian movement has come as a shot for the BKU and especially its most visible face-Rakesh Tikait. After the violence in the capital on 26 January, farmers started leaving the protest sites around the capital. But a viral video of Tikait weeping gave life to the movement. The next day farmers from all over West UP started reaching the protest site.
“used to be covered by his father Amar Ujala And Dainik Bhaskar. he will now be covered by Time Patrika,” quipped a UP official, referring to Tikait, who has been jailed several times in the past over farm-related issues. “He may have lost the election on his own, but he doesn’t need to contest now,” he said. He will now try to be the kingmaker.
Rakesh Tikait’s sense of humour is very good. They have demonstrated the ability to mobilize people as well as control them when needed. These abilities make Tikait not only the face of the peasant movement, but also a key negotiator whom the government can turn to in times of crisis.
(It appeared in the print edition as “The Negotiator”)
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