BKU calls emergency panchayat after Rakesh Tikait 'heckled' at anti-terror rally in Muzaffarnagar
Muzaffarnagar (PTI): The Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) has called for an emergency 'Kisan Panchayat' in Muzaffarnagar on Saturday after a section of people at a protest rally against the Pahalgam terror attack opposed farmer leader Rakesh Tikait's participation.
BKU national president Naresh Tikait announced that the panchayat would be held at the GIC ground in Muzaffarnagar to deliberate on the incident.
Naresh Tikait said the incident at the 'Akrosh rally' was part of a conspiracy orchestrated by "a political party" to weaken the farmers' movement.
On Friday, Rakesh Tikait was allegedly heckled at the rally, organised by right-wing groups, to protest the Pahalgam attack and asked to go back. In the commotion, his turban also fell, purported videos of the incident showed.
"The incident was not spontaneous. It was pre-planned and driven by political motives," Naresh Tikait said, adding that farmers from across the region were beginning to gather in Sisauli and Muzaffarnagar ahead of the panchayat scheduled to begin in the afternoon.
Rakesh Tikait also denounced Friday's "heckling" and reiterated that he thought it was a political sabotage.
"This is a conspiracy by a particular political party to suppress the farmers' voice. Some youths were deliberately sent to disrupt the rally," he told reporters on Friday. He claimed that those shouting slogans against him appeared to be under the influence of alcohol.
In a related development, Tikait announced that the BKU would organise a tractor march to protest against the recent terrorist attack in Kashmir Valley's Pahalgam that left 26 people, mostly tourists, dead.
The date for the march will be decided in the coming days. He urged the Union government to take strict action against terrorist activities to calm public anger.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
