Meghalaya Governor Satya Pal malik on Sunday, 15 March said that he had intervened to prevent farmers’ union leader Rakesh Tikait from getting arrested and had urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah to not use force on the farmers protesting at Delhi borders.
Speaking at a felicitation ceremony in Baghpat’s Sheelchand Inter College, Malik said that the Centre should listen to the demands of the protesting farmers and not try to send them back forcefully as they will remember the ‘humiliation’ for the next 300 years.
“I requested both PM and HM that they should not send the farmers back empty-handed. And that they should not use force against them. The Sikhs will remember it for 300 years. The day there was talk of Tikait (BKU leader Rakesh Tikait) being arrested, I intervened at 11 pm, making sure it didn’t happen,” he said, as quoted by The Indian Express.
Malik further said that the farmers want a guarantee on MSP and “if the government gives MSP a legal backing, the protest will end.”
He further said that while Governors are expected to say silent on issues, he “could not see what was happening co the farmers” and decided to speak up.
The farmers have been protesting the three contentious farm laws of the Centre for over three months at the borders of Delhi. Several efforts by the Centre to reach a conclusion and end the protests after holding talks with the unions have so far been futile.
Malik was also the former Governor of Jammu and Kashmir when the Centre abrogated Article 370 that granted special status to the erstwhile state.
(With inputs from The Indian Express.)
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