Wrestlers postpone plan to immerse medals in river Ganga as Tikait intervenes, give five-day ultimatum   

Farmer leader Naresh Tikait on Tuesday reached Haridwar where wrestlers had gathered to immerse their medals in river Ganga as a mark of protest against WFI chief and BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh over sexual harassment allegations. He took medals from the wrestlers and sought five-day time.

The protesting wrestlers have left the Har Ki Pauri in Haridwar. They have given an ultimatum to the Centre and will return in five days if no action is taken against Brij Bhushan Singh. Naresh Tikait took the medals with him. The athletes won't immerse their medals in the river Ganga till the deadline ends.

Earlier in the day, the country's top wrestlers, including Sakshi Malik, Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia, reached Har ki Pauri to immerse their medals in the Ganga river. A huge crowd gathered in Har ki Pauri as the protesting wrestlers got ready to immerse their world and Olympic medals in the holy waters.

Sakshi, Vinesh and her cousin Sangeeta were seen sobbing as their husbands tried to console them even as scores of their supporters formed a cordon around them. The wrestlers stood for about 20 minutes in silence after reaching Har ki Pauri. 

The wrestlers said they will immerse their hard-earned medals and sit on a hunger strike "until death" at the India Gate. However, the Delhi Police said on Tuesday that they will not be allowed to protest at India Gate as it is a "national monument and not a site for demonstrations". 

Earlier, Sakshi, bronze medallist at the 2016 Rio Olympics, had said in a statement on her Twitter handle that the wrestlers will go to Haridwar to immerse the medals. "These medals are our life and soul. We are going to immerse them in the Ganges because she is Maa Ganga. After that, there is no point of living, so we will sit on a hunger strike until death at India Gate," she had said. 

The same statement was also shared by Vinesh. "We have won these medals with the same purity as the holy Ganga. These medals are holy for the entire country and there can't be a better place to keep them than in the holy Ganga rather than it acting as a mask for the unholy system which is siding with the wrongdoer," Sakshi said. 

"India Gate is the place of those martyrs who sacrificed themselves for the country. We are not as holy as them but our emotions while playing at the international level are similar to those soldiers." Sakshi said as the "system kept trying to scare the victims and stop the protest" instead of "catching the harasser", the wrestlers felt the medals have no value and wanted to return them. 

She wished President Draupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had addressed the issue. "We don't want these medals now because by making us wear them this shiny system is using it as a mask for its own publicity while exploiting us. If we speak against this exploitation, it prepares to send us to jail."

(With inputs from PTI)