Khaps to hold mahapanchayat today amid wrestlers’ protest

Representatives of khaps or clan-based groups from outfits in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab Rajasthan and Delhi will meet in Muzaffarnagar on Thursday to discuss the ongoing protests by India’s top wrestlers against sexual harassment, senior community leaders said, the first signs of a new mobilisation to back the protracted stir.

Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Naresh Tikait said a mahapanchayat will be held in Muzaffarnagar’s Soram village on Thursday to discuss the protest by wrestlers against Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh over charges of intimidation and sexual harassment.

Tikait’s comments came a day after he convinced Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist Bajrang Punia, Rio Games bronze medallist Sakshi Malik, and double World Championship bronze medallist Vinesh Phogat — they have 45 senior international medals between them — to hold off on immersing their medals in the Ganga amid high drama in Haridwar.

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“A mahapanchayat’ will be held in Soram village on Thursday to discuss the ongoing protest by wrestlers. Representatives of different khaps from UP, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and Delhi will participate in it,” Tikait said.

At least 50 khaps are likely to participate in the event, said a person aware of developments.

“The wrestlers took an emotional decision on Tuesday to immerse their medals and it was our duty to stop them. The khaps will meet on Thursday to discuss the future of protest. The struggle will still be led by the wrestlers and all khaps and farmer unions will support them to the hilt,” Chaudhary Surender Solanki, president of Palam 360 khap in Delhi, said.

Solanki will attend the congregation on Thursday while wrestlers will skip it. “The wrestlers won’t be part of this,” he added.

General secretary of Sarv Khap, Subhash Baliyan, said that the meeting would discuss the police action against protesting wrestlers.

Thursday’s meeting and another planned event later this week indicate that community leaders were considering throwing their weight behind the stir. The developments came a day after unprecedented scenes on the banks of the Ganga in Haridwar that saw wrestlers breaking down in a huddle played out on live television. Malik and Phogat sat clasping their box full of medals while their spouses, wrestlers Satyavrat Kadian and Somveer Rathee, comforted them. Punia, one of the most successful Indian sportsmen in history — he has one Olympic medal, four World Championship medals, and two Asian Games medals — also broke down as their supporters formed a human chain to shield them from the huge crowd that had assembled at the ghat on the occasion of Ganga Dussehra.

All three tweeted passionate statements expressing their hurt, especially after the protests took an ugly turn on Sunday when they were detained by police from Jantar Mantar.“We feel why did we even win medals at Olympics or World Championships. Did we win medals to be dragged on the streets and be declared criminals?” they wrote.

The wrestlers have demanded the arrest of Singh, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP from Gonda who has ruled Indian wrestling for 12 years, over allegations of sexual harassment of athletes, including at least one minor. Singh has denied the charges, hit back at the wrestlers, and even said that their medals are worth ₹15 each. Though he has been removed from WFI, which stands suspended, and two FIRs have been filed against him, the wrestlers have demanded that he be arrested immediately.

After sitting at Har Ki Paudi for 90 minutes on Monday evening, an intervention by Tikait led the wrestlers to hold off for now. Tikait, who took away the medals from the wrestlers and kept them in his custody, sought five days from the wrestlers to ensure their demands were met, though his strategy was not clear.

People aware of developments said that after leaving Har Ki Paudi around 7:30 pm on Tuesday, the wrestlers drove to Muzaffarnagar to meet BKU leaders. The wrestlers then drove back to Haridwar and spent the night there. “On Wednesday morning, they were still undecided whether to spend the next 4-5 days somewhere in Uttarakhand or go back to their villages. Ultimately, they decided on the second option,” said one of the persons cited above.

A second person in the know said that the wrestlers were advised by senior BKU leaders to go silent. Multiple calls to Punia and Malik went unanswered while Phogat’s number was switched off for the better part of the day.

The march to the new Parliament building on Sunday, when the wrestlers were manhandled, stopped and detained by police, coincided with Singh’s presence inside the House during the special proceedings while the wrestlers were camped at Jantar Mantar for 38 days demanding action. That sit-in at Jantar Mantar ended on May 28 when Delhi Police detained them and their supporters while they marched towards the new Parliament. The police also cleared the protest site and said they won’t allow wrestlers to return.