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Wrestler protest morphs into farmers’, Jat anger against Modi govt. Women not at forefront

The raucous and angry crowd in Muzaffarnagar was a sea of turbaned men who came to emergency mahapanchayat. They are new custodians of sporting honour.

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Sorham: “If your blood doesn’t boil now. It’s not blood, it’s water!” Screamed a Khap leader into the mic at Sorham’s mahapanchayat on 1 June. His electrifying speech was followed by thunderous applause.

The wrestlers’ protest, which was first branded a ‘family feud’ by many, is growing into the biggest protest on women’s rights after Nirbhaya. Sakshi Mallik, Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia have accused Wrestling Federation of India Chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh of sexual harassment. After the protest site at Jantar Mantar was cleared by Delhi Police and wrestlers dragged and detained brutally, farmers in northern India have decided to stand up for the pehelwans. Except the protest movement about sexual harassment is now slowly metamorphosing and ballooning into something else – an all-out anger against the Modi government.   It is wrapping in the residual anger from the farmers’ protest, Jat agitations and the Lakhimpur Kheri incident, where farmers were mowed down allegedly by a powerful BJP leader Ajay Mishra Teni’s son. No action was taken against Teni, and the farmers are drawing parallels now that Brij Bhushan hasn’t been arrested.

A day-long public meeting at Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh on 1 June is now being followed by a massive Khap meeting in Kurukshetra, Haryana on 2 June.

“Why is he shielding that Gunda?” a farmer from Greater Noida asked, “Why does Modi hate Jats? What does he have against our community?” Another fumed. “He wins UP only on the basis of Hindu-Muslim hate. Now he is trying to divide Jats and Rajputs!” said a protester.

From the podium, passionate Khap leaders invoked the struggle of farmers from the days of the farmer protests. They recounted the deaths of the many farmers during the protest who were ‘martyred’ for the cause, recalled police brutality at New Delhi’s ITO on 26 January 2021, and spoke of the long summer days and cold winter nights they sat in for more than a year. Today, the farmers are willing to take the streets again for the cause of wrestlers. And they bring with them anger against the government which has been simmering for three years.

In all this, the women are conspicuously absent from the crowds. Their identity has been subsumed by the long list of other public grievances in western Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. It is about the dignity of women, the pride of the players and medals, farmer pride and government high handedness.


Also read: Brij Bhushan booked for aggravated sexual assault, but still free. What POCSO Act says on arrest


New custodians at protest

On 30 May, the wrestlers were prevented from immersing their medals in the Ganga River at Har Ki Paudi in Haridwar, by farmer leader Naresh Tikait. Overnight, he became the custodian of the sporting honour.

Naresh Tikait with other farmer leaders sit at the mahapanchayat | Shubhangi Misra, ThePrint
Naresh Tikait with other farmer leaders sit at the mahapanchayat | Shubhangi Misra, ThePrint

Farmers have been moved by this imagery of a tall leader saving the pride of India. “It is our responsibility now to save the medals. Save India’s pride. We won’t rest until Brij Bhushan is under arrest,” said Ajay Singh, a farmer who had come to attend the protest.

The attendees of the mahapanchayat also said that they were tired of being branded ‘anti-national’ by the government, which they say tries to divide their protests and its image along the lines of caste.

Khap leaders said that the government is trying to make this into a Jat vs Rajput issue. “We are proud of Rajput history. We have nothing against any community. In fact, look at so many Khaps from different castes and societies that have come together today. We won’t let the government divide us and then rule!” he added.

Farmer leader Rakesh Tikait also said that there’s no way this protest can be called a Jat protest. “I want to remind you that there’s no caste identity when you represent your country. When you do it, you have only one identity: the Tricolour. The wrestlers didn’t win the medals under a caste or religion flag, they won it for the glory of the Tricolour!”

The radical change in the protest is to see men from the orthodox villages of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana’s Khaps talk about women’s rights and empowerment in the backdrop of the wrestlers’ protest. A taboo topic is being openly discussed, even though the nuance is lost to most. Men in the crowd can’t define what sexual harassment is, and women are not at the forefront of this protest, yet.

Lack of women at mahapanchayat 

Theraucous and angry crowd in Muzaffarnagar was a sea of white and green turbaned men who came on tractors and bullock carts. They smoked hookahs, twirled their long mustaches and shared beedis – even as speakers and attendees said that they are here for their daughters.

“This is an emergency mahapanchayat of all Chaudharies (leaders), women don’t attend these panchayats. However, when the protests begin women will be at the forefront,” said Bharatiya Kisan Leader Naresh Tikait.

Other attendees also said the same thing, “Our wives and daughters don’t attend these protests. We go back home and explain to them what happened. They will join if a special women’s panchayat is called, or when the protests start,” said Jameel Ahmed, a resident of Sorham village.

Monu, a female advocate from Rohini who had come to attend the mahapanchayat said she was disappointed to see that women had not joined. However, she said that she was hopeful that the agitation was the beginning of a positive change. “In our society, we don’t talk about the issues that have been so bravely raised by Sakshi Mallik, Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia. Agitations can bring radical change in society. Through this protest, I hope the society talks more openly about the problem of sexual harassment, and our women can come forward with their stories,” she said.

Some young men in attendance said the whole protest is about Brij Bhushan and ‘badtameezi’ and said that our champions should get justice.


Also read: Ayodhya sadhus to join Brij Bhushan Singh maha rally with one demand: amend POCSO law


A farmer protest in making 

The various panchayats being held are reminiscent of the mobilisation of people before the farmer protests started at various Delhi borders. What is fuelling the mobilisation is a combination of the lingering sense of injustice about the way the farmer agitation was treated by the Modi government and also a sense of power from having forced the authorities to withdraw the farm reform bills.

Rakesh Tikait concluded the mahapanchayat with a fiery speech. Spoke to the media later \ Shubhangi Misra, ThePrint
Rakesh Tikait concluded the mahapanchayat with a fiery speech. Spoke to the media later | Shubhangi Misra, ThePrint

Some speeches by leaders were crisp and short, simply extending support to a larger cause. While others expressed anger at the Modi government’s silence on the issue.

“The government is testing us again. I hope the way you won the previous (farmer’s) protest; you will be willing to protest the same way and win again,” said RLD MP Rajpal Baliyan who said that the protests will have the support of the party.

While the emergency mahapanchayat was announced here, several speakers said that meetings are on-going on village level to raise awareness among people about the issue at hand and to start a protest for the same.

Other leaders also said that wrestlers are their own kith and kin, and that it’s an insult to farmers’ pride if the daughters are disrespected in such a manner.

“It takes our whole life, money and savings to prepare a wrestler who can represent the nation at a global stage, we can’t be disrespected like this,” an orator said.

The leaders continuously invoked the farmers’ protest and said that what happened to the wrestlers was as bruising as what had happened at Ghazipur border on 28 January 2021. Police had tried to empty the Ghazipur protest site, two days after farmers had breached the gates of the red fort. Rakesh Tikait had cried on camera back then and had reignited the protests.

Earlier in an interview to ThePrint, Vinesh Phogat had said that wrestlers are farmers and that the protests also belong to the wrestlers. “It’s an insult to us to say that farmers have hijacked the protests,” she had said, “wrestlers are sons and daughters of farmers.”

For now, old, middle-aged and young men from Haryana and Uttar Pradesh are claiming to be champion of women’s rights, supporting a cause started by their role models. It’s to be seen how much the agitation changes their mindset and mentality.

(Edited by Ratan Priya)

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