Govt must have made such attempts: Rakesh Tikait on Dorsey's "pressure" claim

NEW DELHI: Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) national spokesperson Rakesh Tikait on Tuesday backed former CEO of Twitter Jack Dorsey's claim on 'pressure' from India to block accounts covering the farmers' protests and said that the BJP-ruled government must have made such attempts.

In an interview with the YouTube channel 'Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar', on Monday, Dorsey who stepped down from Twitter's board last year, alleged that the Indian government had put pressure on Twitter and said that it will shut down the company in India and raid the houses of its employees.

Rakesh Tikait was leading protests against three government farm policies in 2020-2021 that have since been overturned. He further asserted that whatever Jack Dorsey said was "correct".

"We had information that the kind of reach on Facebook and Twitter that was expected on farmers' protest, was not coming. They used to try to stop it at their level. The Head (former CEO of Twitter Jack Dorsey) has said this clearly now. But such companies don't come under anyone's pressure. Govt of India must have made such attempts...What he said is correct," said Tikait while talking to ANI.

Jack Dorsey in the interview said that there were requests around farmers' protests to shut Twitter in the country.

"India is one of the countries which had many requests around farmers' protests, around particular journalists who were critical of the government and it manifested in ways such as we will shut Twitter down in India, India is a big marketplace for us. We would raid the homes of your employees, which they did and we will shut down your offices if you don't follow suit and this is India, a democratic country, Dorsey is heard saying in the interview on the YouTube channel," he said.

In November 2021, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the repeal of the three Central farm laws.

In his address to the nation, PM Modi said then, "Today I want to tell everyone that we have decided to repeal all three farm laws."Farmers staged a protest in large numbers against the government's three farm laws since the Centre passed the laws in 2020.

The three farm laws are -- The Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act provides for setting up a mechanism allowing the farmers to sell their farm produce outside the Agriculture Produce Market Committees (APMCs). Any licence-holder trader can buy the produce from the farmers at mutually agreed prices. This trade of farm produces will be free of mandi tax imposed by the state governments.

The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Act allows farmers to do contract farming and market their produces freely. The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act is an amendment to the existing Essential Commodities Act.