Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader and national spokesperson Naresh Tikait said that the farmers are ready to compromise with the government if WFI chief Brijbhushan Sharan Singh, who is accused of sexually abusing female grapplers, is arrested. The announcement was made at a Khap 'mahapanchayat' held in Shaoram village of Muzaffarnagar.
Tikait said, “This (the wrestlers') agitation has been going on peacefully for 40 days. They have been forcibly removed. Women wrestlers have been accused of lying. The POSCO act provides for arrest first and then investigation”.
The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 states, “A Special Court may take cognizance of any offence, without the accused being committed to it for trial, upon receiving a complaint of facts which constitute such offence, or upon a police report of such facts”.
Tikait said that the BKU shall meet the President and government representatives. “Any further decisions shall be taken at Kurukshetra tomorrow (Friday),” he said.
The leader also trained his guns on the government for breaking up families and castes, pointing specifically to the Lalu Yadav clan in Bihar and the Mulayam Singh Yadav clan in UP.
“A wrestler’s caste is the tiranga (tricolour). They fight for the honour of the country. They have been to 24-25 countries and given an identity to the tricolour. They deserve our respect”.
He also assured the women wrestlers that they had no reason to feel disheartened or abandoned. “We will fight your battle”, he said.
Tikait added that representatives from the BKU would meet the International Wrestling Federation while also going to different parts of the country to make people aware of the wrestlers’ plight. This will also be accompanied by talking to people about farmers’ issues such as soaring electricity prices, water for irrigation, and forcible land acquisition. He also claimed that many people from the government were also supporting the BKU’s fight.
Tikait added that he had dissuaded the wrestlers from throwing their medals in the Ganga and requested them to wait for the next five days while the BKU built pressure on the government.
Tikait also criticised the opposition for not playing its part. “This government has succeeded in splitting the opposition,” he said.
