Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait addressed the press on September 28 in Chhattisgarh’s Raipur, where he’s attending a kisan mahapanchayat in Rajim.

“Agla target media house hai. Aapko bachna hai toh sath de do warna aap bhi gaye,” he said. The next target is media houses. If you want to be saved then join us, else you'll also suffer.

When journalists present reminded him that Chhattisgarh has a Congress government, Tikait replied that it didn’t matter. “A government is a government,” he said in Hindi. “It doesn’t matter which party.”

Tikait also called out the central government for “selling half the country” before explaining how the BJP government in Madhya Pradesh had sold 182 farmer mandis. The same could happen in Chhattisgarh, he said, after which he went on to state that the media was the next “target”.

Perhaps Tikati was issuing a veiled threat to Zee News that has earlier accused the farm protest of harbouring “Khalistani terrorists” and conducted “stings” against Tikait’s brother that was aired last evening. It is no secret that the trust among protesting farmers and a section of the media is at an all-time low, with several run-ins being reported at various protest sites. More recently, Aaj Tak anchor Chitra Tripathi was booed away while she was covering the Muzaffarnagar Mahapanchayat. Be that as may, the farmer leader should remember that it is not the job of journalists to “join” the movement but only to report on it fairly.

Update on September 29

The Bharatiya Kisan Union today tweeted that Tikait’s quote was used out of context by the BJP IT cell to make him look like he was threatening the media. Speaking with Newslaundry, BKU media incharge Dharmendra Malik insisted that Tikait meant the government would target media houses, just like the farmers, if they did not align with the government.

He then spoke about the recent actions taken against “unbiased” media houses. “The IT cell of BJP cut down the 30-second video to just 10 seconds to create the illusion that Tikait is threatening the media,” he said.

Yesterday, Zee News editor-in-chief, Sudhir Chaudhary, had shared an edited version of the video and said, “The next target of Rakesh Tikait are media houses...If he showed the truth, then this threat? Or else?”