Our daughters, Haryana's pride: Om Prakash Dhankar on protesting wrestlers

GURGAON: After prolonged silence from the state's ruling dispensation on the wrestlers' protest at Jantar Mantar, broken only by home minister Anil Vij voicing his support last week, state BJP chief Om Prakash Dhankar on Tuesday described the sportspersons as Haryana's pride.
Dhankar said the protesters are "daughters" of Haryana and he has taken up their demands with Union sports minister Anurag Thakur.
Olympians and international medalists Sakshi Malik and Vinesh Phogat are among wrestlers who have accused Wrestling Federation of India president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, a BJP MP, of sexual harassment. Singh has denied the allegations.
"While speaking to the Union minister, I stressed that our daughters who are protesting at Jantar Mantar are the pride of Haryana and they should get justice. The minister has assured me that they will," Dhankar said, responding to questions about khap panchayats and farmers joining the wrestlers' stir.
Dhankar was in the city on Tuesday to hold a meeting with general secretaries of Haryana BJP to review the party's organisational work and discuss preparations to celebrate nine years of the Narendra Modi government at the Centre.
Malik, Phogat and Bajrang Punia have been sitting on a protest at Jantar Mantar since April 23 to demand the WFI president's arrest. Delhi Police registered FIRs against Singh only after wrestlers approached the Supreme Court late last month. No arrests have been made as yet.
The state government has been quiet on the protests but had sent notices on April 28 to wrestlers with government jobs, asking them to explain why they had missed work in January, when the protest first began.