Farmer Leader Naresh Tikait Calls Khap Meeting Today To Support Wrestlers Protest

Farmer leader Naresh Tikait on Tuesday intervened and stopped protesting wrestlers from immersing their medals in the river Ganga and said that there would be a Khap meeting over the issue.

The Wrestlers have been protesting against WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh over sexual harassment allegations and are demanding his arrest.

"Entire Indian government is saving one man (WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh). There will be a Khap meeting tomorrow," said Naresh Tikait.

He also said, "Our brave women athletes have won these medals with a lot of hard work. they are the pride of the nation, they should not take these kinds of steps, so they agreed."

Olympic medalist wrestlers Bajrang Punia and Sakshi Malik alongwith Vinesh Phogat, who have accused the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh of sexual harassment and are demanding his arrest, reached Uttarakhand's Haridwar to immerse their all medals including Olympic medals in the river Ganga on Tuesday evening, as a mark of their protest.

Earlier, the wrestlers took to Twitter and shared a post about the chain of events that have unfolded in recent days and the way authorities handled the situation.

The protesting wrestlers said that they will visit Haridwar and throw their medals in the Ganga at 6 pm on Tuesday.

They said they will sit on a hunger strike at India Gate after throwing their medals. In their post, the wrestlers said, "You saw everything that happened on May 28, how police treated us and the way they arrested us. We were protesting peacefully, our place has been taken away and the next day serious cases and FIR were filed against us. Have the wrestlers committed any crime by demanding justice for the sexual harassment that happened to them? The police and the system are treating us like criminals, while the oppressor is taking jibe moving freely. He is even openly talking about changing the POSCO Act."

Several ace grapplers including Bajrang Punia, Vinesh Phogat and Sakshi Malik have been protesting against the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh accusing him of sexual harassment and demanding his arrest. They also went on to question the fact that how the women wrestlers had to hide for the entire day.

"Yesterday, many of our women wrestlers were hiding in the fields. The system should arrest the oppressor but it is engaged in breaking and intimidating the victim women to end their protest," the grapplers said.

They further said that these medals are left with no meaning.
"It is not less than death for us thinking of returning medals but how can we live compromising our self-respect? We don't need these medals anymore. If we speak against exploitation, they prepare to put us in jail," the wrestlers said.

"We are going to shed these medals in the Ganga. Our medals which we earned after hard work are as sacred as River Ganga. These medals are sacred for the entire country and the right place to keep the sacred medal can be holy Ganga and not our unholy system which masquerades us and stands with our oppressor after taking advantage of us. The medal is our life, our soul. We will sit on hunger strike at India gate till death," the wrestlers added.

On Sunday, India's Olympic medallist wrestlers Sakshi Malik, Bajrang Punia along with Vinesh Phogat and Sangeeta Phogat were detained by Delhi Police while attempting to march to the new Parliament building where they planned to stage a demonstration.

FIR has been filed under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 147, 149, 186, 188, 332, 353, Section 3 of the PDPP Act, said Delhi Police.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)