Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait whose outfit was part of the 13-month-long agrarian protests against the Centre on Sunday cautioned people not to be swayed by the BJP’s attempts to shift their attention to the matter of alleged exodus of people Kairana in Shamli district during the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots.
“Kairana palayan sarkari plan hai,palayan nahi .Iske behkave me mat ayo [The Kairana exodus is a government plan and hence do not get influenced by it],” Rakesh Tikait said at a mahapanchayat in Kairana on Sunday afternoon. The event was organised to thank farmers after their year-long protests concluded the day before following the recent repeal of three controversial Central farm laws that the farmers were protesting against.
BJP leaders such as Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Union Home Minister Amit Shah have raised the issue of the alleged exodus during recent public meetings. At a rally in Saharanpur earlier this month, both of them raised the matter, with Shah saying that in the run-up to the 2017 state elections he had assured people in the region that if the BJP came to power those responsible “for your exodus will exit UP”. In November, the district magistrate of Shamli had ordered an exercise to prepare a list of people allegedly forced out of Kairana in 2013-’14.
 leader Rakesh Tikait whose outfit was part of the 13-month-long agrarian protests against the Centre on Sunday){kind=link}