Protesting Indian Wrestlers Deserve More Than Just Hollow Promises

Sakshi Malik and Vinesh Phogat returned to protest against Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh on Sunday, 23 April.

(Photo: PTI)

The Indian wrestling contingent returned home with a 100 percent record from the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, with six gold, one silver and five bronze medals. All 12 wrestlers were welcomed with the chants of 'Bharat Mata ki Jai' at the airport. 

Their names were Ravi Kumar Dahiya, Bajrang Punia, Naveen Kumar, Deepak Punia, Deepak Nehra, Mohit Grewal, Pooja Gehlot, Vinesh Phogat, Anshu Malik, Sakshi Malik, Divya Kakran and Pooja Sihag.

Each of these wrestlers were all over the news, received with open arms, felicitated by the Union Sports Ministry and respective state governments. Cash rewards were announced. Promises were made.

Today, many of these athletes are protesting at the Jantar Mantar in Delhi, three months after calling off the protest against Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.

In January, the wrestlers had accused Singh and WFI officials of sexual harassment and mistreatment of wrestlers, demanding the federation be disbanded and Singh removed from office. Only once Sports Minister Anurag Thakur assured the wrestlers that Singh would be made to step aside, pending an investigation did the three-day protest end. Speaking to the media a few days later, Singh said he himself had let Sports Ministry officials know that he was willing to 'step aside' (though not resign) from his position.

“The wrestlers took a step back, so I had to take a step back too," Singh had stated. "How could I not? My only point was that I will not resign. And let me tell you, no one asked me to resign. I also told them I’d support the probe. We were mindful of the fact that the news was going to all parts of the world and it was denting our image."

The new committee constituted by Sports Minister Anurag Thakur was headed by decorated Indian boxer MC Mary Kom and included former wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt, former shuttler Trupti Murgunde, SAI member Radhica Sreeman, ex-CEO of the Target Olympic Podium Plan Rajesh Rajagopalan, and CWG gold medalist Babita Phogat. They were given one month to investigate the matter an submit their findings.

Two and a half months later, the wrestlers had been waiting patiently for the report to be submitted to the ministry. However, they were left infuriated when it was reported that the Oversight Committee had already submitted its report on 5 April, despite at least one member of the committee having not signed it.

"I read an article in which one of the committee members said that the report has been submitted to the Sports ministry without his signatures," decorated wrestler Bajrang Punia said. "The member also expressed his/her disagreement with the report. If a committee member is not involved in report submission and disagrees with the report, how are we supposed to trust it? We were not even informed that the report was submitted to the ministry," he added. 

On Sunday, 23 April, the wrestlers were back at the protest site after a Delhi Police refused to register an FIR against Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh on 21 April despite seven women, including a minor coming forward to complain against him.

"There are 7 female wrestlers and one of them is a minor," Sakshi Malik told the media at Jantar Mantar. "We want the investigation to happen fast. It is a sensitive matter. We are being framed as liars which we cannot bear. We have been waiting for two and a half months now but no one is listening. People are saying we are a spent force that is why we are protesting. We just won a medal at CWG 2022," Malik exhorted.

The wrestlers, led by Olympians Vinesh Phogat, Bajrang Punia and Sakshi Malik have now moved to the Supreme Court and sought the registration of an FIR against Singh. The wrestlers believe that it was a mistake to call off the protest in January and feel that they were 'manipulated'. They have also decided to not entertain any mediator this time around and have even requested the farmers’ organisations, the women’s organisation and the ‘khaps’ to support them.

Perhaps, it has dawned upon them that some political backing is a necessary evil to have their demands met in this country. And, it is completely understandable when their fight is against WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, a BJP MP from Kaiserganj in Uttar Pradesh. 

The six-time MP fell out with the BJP and joined the Samajwadi Party in 2008 but rejoined the BJP in 2014 and won from Kaiserganj. One of the staunchest supporters of the Ram Mandir movement in the BJP and an accused in the Babri Masjid demolition case, Singh still has four pending cases against him. In the mid-1990s, he was arrested under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) for allegedly helping associates of gangster Dawood Ibrahim.

In 2012, Singh defeated Congress' Deepender Hooda to become the WFI president. 

It beggars belief that more than three months after the government had formed a six-member panel on 23 January to investigate into the sexual harassment and intimidation allegations against the WFI, no solid progress seems to have been made. And this when the protesting athletes are the ones who have brought laurels to the country with multiple international medals.

Who's calling the shots here? If there's nothing to hide, why were all the probe committee members not taken into confidence before the report was submitted to the ministry? Moreover, why have the findings of the report not been made public?

Now, the Union Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports has directed the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) to form an ad-hoc committee to conduct the elections for the Executive Committee of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) within 45 days of its formation and manage the day-to-day affairs.

In what comes as another major breakthrough for the wrestlers, the Supreme Court has issued a notice to Delhi Police in response to the petition filed by the wrestlers. The bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha has termed the allegations as 'serious' and will take up the matter again on Friday.

One can only hope that the admiration and adulation for our national wrestlers isn't limited to when they win medals. Those who literally shed their blood and sweat for the nation deserve an Internal Complaints Committee at the very least. 

It shouldn't have come to this. Our wrestlers deserve better than to sleep on the footpath in order to have their voices heard. But, now that we are here, they mustn't return without something substantial. Only then will the 'Bharat Mata ki Jai' chants cease to ring hollow.