Wrestlers' protest: Naresh Tikait calls 'mahapanchayat' today

AGRA: Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) national president Naresh Tikait announced on Wednesday that a 'mahapanchayat' would be held at Sauram village in Muzaffarnagar district on Thursday to discuss issues regarding the ongoing protest by wrestlers and "form a strategy for the coming days".
Khap, farmer leaders from UP, Hry, Raj, U'khand, Punjab to attend
The grapplers have been demanding the arrest of BJP MP and Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief Brij Bhushan Singh over sexual harassment charges since April.
Tikait, who is also the chief of Balyan khap, said that khap leaders from Haryana, Punjab, Delhi, Uttarakhand and Rajasthan will also attend the mahapanchayat, besides others from other parts of the country. Sarv khap (an umbrella body of khaps) secretary Subhash Balyan told TOI, "As many as 365 khaps are there in India, and we have informed all of them over phone and also on Facebook. A total of 28 khaps from western UP -- such as Balyan, Deshwal, Rathi, Nirwal, Panwar, Beniwal Hudda, Latian, Ghatian, Ahlawat, etc -- will join the panchayat. Others will come in."
On Tuesday, some of the country's top wrestlers -- including Olympic medallists Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia, and Asian Games champion Vinesh Phogat -- accompanied by hundreds of supporters gathered on the banks of the Ganga in Haridwar, threatening to immerse their World and Olympic medals in the holy river, but refrained after khap and farm leaders convinced them not to do so. The khap leaders have sought five days' time to address their grievances. On their return from Haridwar, the wrestlers stopped at Tikait's house at Civil Lines in Muzaffarnagar, where they had dinner and discussed arrangements for the mahapanchayat. "If the government wants, this dispute can end immediately," Tikait said. Asked whether khap leaders had accompanied the wrestlers to Haridwar, Tikait said "no".
"After we came to know about the wrestlers' decision to immerse the medals in the Ganga, we immediately brought the children (wrestlers) back after convincing them not to do so. The khaps want Bhushan arrested, and the court of law should decide the matter," he added.