Bigger agitation than anti-farm laws stir needed on MSP issue: BKU leader

Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait on Wednesday said an agitation bigger than the one against the now repealed farm laws will have to be launched for a legal guarantee on the minimum support price.

Tikait condemned Haryana Police's lathicharge on protesting farmers who had blocked a national highway in Kurukshetra's Shahabad on Tuesday demanding that the government procure sunflower seeds at Minimum Support Price (MSP).

"This is the first lathicharge in the country on those demanding MSP," he said, while adding that MSP for crops is a pan-India issue.

He said the struggle that began in Shahabad would reach the national level as every farmer is concerned about the MSP for different crops.

"An agitation bigger than the one in Delhi (farmers' agitation against now repealed farm laws) will have to be undertaken for MSP," he told reporters in Karnal.

Tikait reached Shahabad to meet the farmers and support their demand for MSP on sunflower seeds.

Nine leaders of the Bharatiya K