Wrestlers are up in arms against the Wrestling Federation of India for harassment, sexual misconduct and irregularities. The Govt must act.
The credit for dissolving the recent controversy, though temporarily, where several top-based World and Olympic medalist wrestlers including Vinesh Phogat, Bajrang Punia, and Sakshi Malik staged a protest at New Delhi to probe the allegations of sexual harassment against the chief of the World Federation of India (WFI), Brij Bhushan Sharan, goes to the Union Sports Minister, Anurag Thakur and his team. As the sequence of incidents indicates on January 18, 2023, the wrestlers began the protest at Jantar Mantar, on the same day, the Sports Ministry took swift action by sending a notice to WFI seeking an explanation, met wrestlers and assured them of a free and fair probe leading to calling off the protest. On January 20, WFI replied to the notice rejecting all allegations, and on January 21, the Sports Ministry asked the Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh and WFI Executive Committee to abstain from attending to the activities of the Federation. Although the tussle is far from over, some top wrestlers are upset with the way dharana ended – neither did their demand of disbanding WFI accepted nor did Singh resign as President but merely “stepped aside” – they have taken the matter to the next level and sought a meeting with the Union Home Minister, Amit Shah. All said and done, the issue which would have boomeranged into a major crisis has been contained at an initial level.
The Sports Minister formulated the OverSight Committee under the chairmanship of six-time world champion and Olympic medalist boxer and head of the Indian Olympic Association, M.C.Mary Kom consists of Olympic medalist wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt, Archer Dola Banerjee, former shuttler Alknanda Ashok, Indian Weightlifting Federation President, Sahdev Yadav, advocates Talish Ray and Shlok Chandra. Till that time, the Committee will carry out the day-to-day affairs of WFI. The Committee will probe the allegations of sexual misconduct, harassment and intimidation, financial irregularities, and administrative lapses and submit its reports within a month. However, the President of WFI, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, BJP MP from Kaiserganj, Uttar Pradesh -having criminal cases pending against him refused to resign claiming that the protest was a part of a “larger conspiracy to malign and defame him”.
Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh (66), a law graduate, has been a controversial figure in the politics of Uttar Pradesh for more than three decades. He emerged as “bahubali” during the phase of unstable political circumstances in UP during the 1990s. He developed a network of supporters not only from its Rajput community but also from other castes to win the Lok Sabha election from Gonda in 1991 on a BJP ticket. He was named as an accused in the Babri demolition case. He was elected to the Lok Sabha from Balrampur on a BJP ticket in 2004. Atal Bihari Vajpayee was not happy with him, so he left BJP to win the election on an SP ticket in 2009. Again, joined BJP and won the Lok Sabha elections in 2013 and 2019. As per his 2019 election affidavit, the MP faces four criminal cases including serious charges of robbery and attempt to murder, and was charged under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Prevention Act for allegedly sheltering shooters of a notorious Uttar Pradesh gang, although later acquitted by the court. In 1993, he was accused of attacking a former State Minister and another strongman Vinod Kumar Singh alias Pandit Singh, his competitor for three decades. In this case, also, he was acquitted by the court. He has been in news for criticizing Swami Ramdev, courting controversies by threatening MNS President, Raj Thackeray if the latter visited Ayodhya.
Undoubtedly, it’s courageous on the part of the wrestlers to confront a powerful six-term MP and President of WFI who has been dominating the game of wrestling for almost ten years. Phogat and her wrestler colleagues took up the cause by voicing fear for their lives for taking on “powerful people”, speaking on behalf of about 20 girls who have been “exploited in the national camps over the past 10 years” and claiming to have their recordings. She came forward to represent their cause because these upcoming wrestlers come from poor families and are too scared to fight back because they are not “powerful”.
However, this case is not in isolation. At least two recent cases of similar nature come to mind. In June 2021, the sexual misconduct of a Tamil Nadu sports academy coach, P. Nagarajan came to light when a teenage athlete accused him of sexual exploitation from 2013 to 2020 and seven more women who trained under him during his three-decade career accused him of some kind of sexual exploitation. In June last year, the incident of cycling coach R.K Sharma was in the public domain for sexually harassing a top female cyclist by threatening to derail her career.
It is a matter of pity that India’s top-ranking self-made wrestlers come from ordinary families, who have made it big by toiling on the mats and on the ground, following grueling schedules for years to win medals for the country in the Olympics, Commonwealth, and Asian games are forced to sit on dharna in the bitter cold of the national capital. The concerned authorities should act fast to regain the confidence of our “shining stars” who bring pride to our nation before it is too late.
(The writer is a senior journalist and Chairman of the Panwar Group of Institutions, Solan, Himachal Pradesh. The views expressed are personal)
