Men roaming around in half pants is distasteful, says Muzaffarnagar khap leader

This is not yet an order, but a piece of advice which has come from the elders, Naresh Tikait said.

Influential khap panchayat leader Naresh Tikait has said men have been advised to not roam around in half pants as only imposing such restrictions on women is not a solution. “Elders have decided to not allow men going about market places and daily public life in half pants as it is distasteful,” Naresh Tikait, khap panchayat leader, Muzaffarnagar said, as quoted by news agency ANI. This is, however, not an order. “It is a piece of advice,” he was quoted saying.

In 2014, the khap panchayat banned women from wearing jeans and using mobile phones and the internet. Tikait at that time also blamed jeans for “spoiling the society and the environment”.

Claiming the move as a success as 80 per cent women abided by the diktat, Tikait reportedly said now is the time to “reform” the men of society, as imposing diktats on women alone won’t help.

Tikait, who is also the president of the Bharatiya Kisan Union, had stirred another controversy in 2014 after he said the Supreme Court should not get entangled in deciding who should marry whom. “The marriage of our children is our sole business. We invest more than Rs 30-40 lakh on their education, upbringing, but when it comes to marriage, they run away and live with girls of same gotra under police protection,” Tikait had said.

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