Reality of Wrestlers Protest | Brij Bhushan

 "They used to live in the same room, so that the president wouldn't call them if they were alone. If you speak against the president, you will be killed."

 "They are crying, they cry together in the same room, they are not eating." And he used to try to call the girls to the room, he wanted girls to visit his room alone." 

Will our athletes get justice?

Hello, friends!

It's been almost a month since our Olympic medal-winning wrestlers have been protesting. They have been sitting on the streets for a month and repeating their demands. And the media is hardly talking about it. On the contrary, during this time there have been efforts to try to discredit these wrestlers. Allegations that this protest is a conspiracy, a political conspiracy whose real motive is something else. Some said that if these wrestlers had to speak up, why didn't they do so earlier? Some people said that they don't want to give a trial, to qualify for the Olympics and so they are protesting. 

Come, let's take a look at these new developments. The demands of the protesting wrestlers have been very specific from the start. They have spoken against only one man and have also demanded action against that one man. The Chief of the Wrestling Federation of India, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh,

 a BJP MP from the Gonda constituency of Uttar Pradesh. 7 wrestlers have filed a s*xual har*ssment complaint against him and one of these seven is a minor. Because of this, for the first time in January, wrestlers started protesting at Jantar Mantar. You heard it right, January 2023. But then within three days, the government assured them that  The government would take action. So they stopped the protest. But 3 months later, they went back to protest at Jantar Mantar claiming that the government is delaying and not taking proper action. The government had set up a committee to investigate the s3xual harr*ssment allegations against Brij Bhushan. But wrestlers say that  the government has delayed releasing the committee's report. Secondly, they said that they don't trust this committee. So, to sum it up, in April they were back to protesting. This time, this protest got some publicity and the matter reached Supreme Court. The Supreme Court issued a notice to the Delhi Police to file an FIR against Brij Bhushan. And after 6-7 days of this protest, the Delhi Police finally registered 2 FIRs against Brij Bhushan on 28th April. 

The first FIR is based on the POCSO Act based on the allegations of the minor. 

The second FIR is for Outraging the Modesty and its relevant sections. 

Our wrestlers say that protests will continue until Brij Bhushan is arrested. Now, by this point in time, many opposition political parties had openly shown their support for the wrestlers. So, because of this, many rumours are spreading on social media and media. Many allegations are put against the wrestlers. some allegation are : 

 A user wrote that the protests are happening because of a rule implemented by Brij Bhushan. As per which wrestlers who won medals in the Olympics or National Games will have to qualify in trials. They won't get a straight ticket. 

 Another user wrote, "winning medals doesn't mean they are above the law. Sushil Kumar was an Olympic medalist but now he is in jail. People know that this is just a politically-influenced protest." 

 

 the third comment, "if they have won medals, it doesn't mean that their claims can prove a rap3 case against someone. And if there was a case of s3xual harr*ssment for 10 years, why did they invite him to their wedding or parties? Why didn't they tell us this earlier?" 

Basically, I am showing you this so that you can see the different types of allegations being made against the wrestlers. 

Finally, look at the fourth comment.

"Why don't you tell us the whole fact? A committee was formed in which none of them could present evidence or witnesses in front of the committee. Let's look at the point of this committee first. The first thing to know here is that according to the law, for every organisation with 10 or more employees in the country there should be an internal complaints committee. If any sportsperson has to file a complaint of s3xual harr*ssment against someone in their own federation, then it can be submitted to the internal complaint committee. But WFI did not have any such internal complaint committee. Not only that, the Indian Express investigation tells us that not only in wrestling but more than half of the national sports federations in the country either don't have their internal complaint committee or they don't have a s3xual harr*ssment panel or they are not in accordance with the law. Apart from this, when wrestlers started protesting for the first time in January 2023, after that protest, the government formed a new committee, the Oversight Committee. This committee was tasked with investigating all the allegations against Brij Bhusan Singh. Related to this an article was published in the Economic Times on 13th April 2023 which gives us some information about the happenings of this Oversight Committee. At one time, it was alleged that Brij Bhusan Singh had asked a female physio for a massage to treat his back pain during a competition in Bulgaria last year. But during the hearing of this Oversight Committee, the same physio denied that anything of the sort had happened. She says that it wasn't a massage, but that Brij Bhushan had asked for a painkiller. The article states that there is no concrete evidence on the basis of which these s3xual harr*ssment allegations can be proved against Brij Bhushan. 

What do the protesting wrestlers have to say about this?

 

Sakshi Malik : "The 10 girls who went to the Junior selections said, and they raised their voices, they also said that they used to live in the same room so that the president doesn't call them if they were alone. And as far as physio is concerned, when she was questioned, the physio said that she was called to get him tablets. This is because she is scared that if she speaks against the president, she will be killed. Or whatever threats they have been using on the girls." In their opinion, it is natural that some girls will remain silent. 

Some users on social media ask where are the girls who have been har*ssed.? Why are they not coming forward? 

Apart from  Sakshi Malik and Vinesh Phogat, no other girl has come forward. But it is important to note that the identity of the girls who are complaining cannot be revealed according to the law. The Supreme Court also said while issuing its order that the 7 girls who have complained of s3xual harr*ssment their names should be removed from the judicial record so that their identities can be protected. So, in reality, we do not know the names of the 7 wrestlers who have filed the complaint. We only know

 the names of Vinesh Phogat, Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia because they are the three wrestlers who are leading this protest. Sakshi says that apart from these 7, there are many more who testified in front of the Oversight Committee. 

 Sakshi Malik : "They are saying that no girl has come forward. 7 girls have filed a complaint, on which there has been an FIR. And 10 girls have given their statements to the committee. And there are many other girls who don't want to come forward. They call us and message us saying, "you have done a brave job. We never had the courage." Many girls are with us. But they are helpless. Due to family or other factors. Many girls don't want to come forward." 

In the complaint filed with the police 8 instances of s3xual harr*ssment were specified. In restaurants, offices, tournaments, and during warm-ups. It is alleged that Brij Bhushan was touching girls in the wrong places, pretending to check their breath. Vinesh Phogat says that in any international competition, Brij Bhushan used to book his room in the same hotel and on the same floor as the girls. The junior girls often used to sit together and cry because of this. They didn't eat. And in recent years, this harr*ssment reached such levels where it has become intolerable. 

 Vinesh Phogat : "Whenever Brij Bhushan went abroad for any international competition, He booked his rooms on the same floor as the girls. In the same hotel. If he had to travel, he would join the girls on the bus. The girls were not comfortable. This increased in recent years. The junior under 17 girls were targeted mostly. They would not be comfortable. They would cry together in one room. They would not go to eat. The girls were mentally tortured like this. And he used to try to call the girls to the room. So that the girls would visit him alone in his room. For personal favours and all that. He'd do such things. It had increased to an intolerable level." Many people raise questions here. 

Why are these girls saying this now? Why didn't they complain about this before when this happened? 

Here, I would like to remind you about the #MeToo movement which started in America in Hollywood and the movement eventually reached India. Many women spoke up about the harr*ssment they had to face for years. I am not saying that all allegations made by the women were true, but it is also stupid to imagine that all the allegations were wrong. The thing is that people who say why now, imagine an idealistic environment where men and women are equal. A situation where both are treated equally and job and career are not at risk. The wrongdoer will be caught instantly, no one can be threatened and the police will take instant proactive action. The court trial will be quick, justice will be easy and there will be no stigma in society. But in real life, this isn't true. We live in a society where we hear such statements often. "She is complaining, but she must have done something too." "She must have given some hints." "If it is in a rock show, it is a hint. If it is in a library or a temple, it is not a hint." Or someone says that you are overreacting. Keep quiet and ignore it. We hear arguments that the family's reputation will be ruined. How will she get married? Often, families threaten their daughters. "If you open your mouth in front of anyone, it wouldn't be good for you." In such a society, you can easily imagine that though there women face harr*ssment, they remain silent. They are afraid to speak, they have to think about what other people will think, or they feel traumatized. Other than this stigma, imagine that there's a risk of ending their career. 

If she complains against her own boss, what will happen to her? Will she be allowed to work? Some people will say, "why do girls choose career options?"

 But the truth is, is there a career where it doesn't happen? In films, journalism, wrestling, and corporate, you get to hear such cases everywhere. Our Commonwealth Medal-winning wrestler, Vinesh Phogat says, it takes years for a woman to have the courage to speak.

 Vinesh Phogat : "The society we come from, the country we come from, we have fought so hard to get here. And to say such things there, I feel it doesn't suit us. What will our family think? What will people think?

 Sakshi Malik says that earlier some girls tried to raise their voices alone.

 Sakshi Malik : "Their names were cut from the camp, and cut from the competition. They have not been able to play in any competition till now." 

Gradually many girls raised their voices and their voices were heard together. Physiotherapist Paramjeet Malik

told the Oversight Committee that in 2014, female wrestlers came to him crying and were telling him about the s3xual harr*ssment by Brij Bhushan Singh. At least three junior women wrestlers told him in the camp how they were being pressurised. How they were asked to meet Brij Bhushan at night. Paramjeet told this to the then women's coach Kuldeep Malik but no action was taken. 

Now the next allegation that is being put on the protesting wrestlers is that if these female wrestlers already knew Brij Bhushan's reality,

 then why did they invite Brij Bhushan to their weddings? 

They happily clicked photos with Brij Bhushan.

Sakshi Malik says that she joined wrestling in 2008 and started winning medals in 2010. She always thanked her parents and coach, but all the wrestlers were continuously force-fed

 Sakshi Malik : "Who will thank the President? Who will thank us? Who will thank the Wrestling Federation? So it was strictly imposed on us that we have to compulsorily thank them after every medal." 

Vinesh Phogat has a similar story to this accusation. She said that a wedding invitation was literally demanded. She was bluntly asked for an invitation. Asking her to invite them to her wedding. Sakshi also says that Brij Bhushan used to organise competitions in Gonda and she was forced to participate in those competitions. When people visited his house, he used to introduce the sportspersons as Olympic champion, or World champion, as if they were not humans but trophies. 

Now we come to the biggest allegation related to politics and trials. Here,

 a statement that is often repeated by some people is why is politics playing a role in this? 

I never understood the logic behind this argument. When farmers were protesting, people were asking why is there politics on this? When wrestlers are protesting, why is there politics on this? If there is no politics on important issues, then will there be politics on Hindu-Muslim? If there is no politics on public issues, then what will be the politics on? 

 Vinesh Phogat : "If there is politics for women, for women's respect it is not bad politics. These issues need politics. So if anyone wants to take it up, it is an important issue. 

My opinion : "I believe that political parties should always be open. They can be a part of any social movement, any protest. They can support it, if they want to. 

But if we talk about this specific protest, in the beginning, wrestlers said that they asked political parties to stay away. But later when the government didn't listen, and the protest started getting bigger political parties started getting involved in it.

 But there is a very specific allegation against a political party. The allegation is that Olympic medalist Bajrang Punia and Congress leader Deepender Hooda

 have created a conspiracy together. 

Who made this allegation?

 Brij Bhushan Singh made this allegation. He says that a big industrialist is also involved in this conspiracy and he has an audio clip to prove it. But he will give that audio clip to the Delhi police at the right time. Then some unknown Twitter accounts repeated and propagated this accusation and created long threads on this. \

What does this conspiracy say exactly? 

That Congress leader Deepender Hooda actually wanted to become the WFI chief in 2011. But he lost to Brij Bhushan. Apart from this, in November 2021, WFI introduced new rules for selection according to which every wrestler, whether he is a medal holder or not, they have to play in the nationals and go through trials. Because of this, an open fight breaks out between Brij Bhushan and Haryana Federation in June 2022. As a consequence, WFI dissolves Haryana Federation and Deepender Hooda Was removed from the post of President of the Haryana Federation. Now, the next election for WFI President is scheduled for May 2023. And no one can be a president for more than three times. So allegedly, Deepender Hooda was quite sure that he would become the president of WFI. But later he came to know that Brij Bhushan is going to promote his son to the post of president.

These three wrestlers, Bajrang Punia, Vinesh Phogat and Sakshi Malik, are opposing the new selection rules because they didn't participate in the national games in Gujarat and neither did they participate in the selection trial in New Delhi back in December 2022. They are accused that they want to play Asian Games without a selection trial. So according to this conspiracy theory, Deepender Hooda and these three wrestlers found a common enemy in Brij Bhushan and so they joined hands. It's a very long and complex conspiracy theory. 

First of all, when you see such things on social media, check the source of the arguments. Since Elon Musk has taken over Twitter, the blue ticks have lost their value. Now anyone can buy a blue tick for themselves. This theory was posted by a Twitter account which has no name on its Twitter profile.

And if you look at the other posts, many nonsense conspiracy theories are being propagated. Conspiracy theories like Deep State and Illuminati. But anyway, it is not necessary to know who is spreading these conspiracy theories because often the anchors of the biased media also talk about such things. It is important to know what is being discussed exactly. You will find news articles for some of these points. Like the news article from 2012 which states that Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh was elected as the president of WFI under controversial circumstances. But if you look at it, you will find that this election fight was not Brij Bhushan vs. Deepender Hooda rather it was much more complex. It had many other stakeholders like, Dushyant Singh and PV Rathee. There was also a dispute over the electoral college. But we are deviating from the topic. Even if we assume that Deepender Hooda was the only other contender against Brij Bhusan, does it mean that whoever fights against Deepender Hooda becomes an innocent man? It is like a thief telling a police inspector that since the two have personal enmity, he cannot be a thief. There is no sense in this. On this, Deepender Hooda claims thatat times Brij Bhushan says that there is an industrialist behind this, sometimes he says that Haryana's Jatt lobby is behind this, sometimes he blames Bajrang Punia. But in reality, Brij Bhushan is the person against whom there are more than 40 criminal cases. Hooda asks if there is anyone else behind those criminal cases. 

Now, let's come to the issue of wrestlers. 

Do wrestlers want to avoid trials? Do they oppose the new selection rules? 

There is some truth to it. In November 2021, WFI did change the selection rules. According to the new rules, a state quota was introduced. Haryana Wrestling Association was not happy with the new state quota rules. 

What is the reason behind this? 

Think about it. 

How many Indian wrestlers have won Olympic medals in wrestling? 

 There's KD Jadhav from Maharashtra. Apart from him, there is Sushil Kumar, Yogeshwar Dutt, Sakshi Malik, Ravi Dhaiya, Bajrang Punia. The rest are from Haryana. The 8 wrestlers who qualified from India in Tokyo Olympics 2020 were all from Haryana. There could be many reasons behind this. As to why there are so many wrestlers from Haryana. But the point remains that there are more wrestlers from Haryana than from other states. But Brij Bhushan passed a new rule in WFI that no state is allowed to field more than one team in the Nationals. WFI's logic behind this was that the weaker states will get more opportunities to advance in the game. So naturally, Haryana's team was not happy with this. The secretary general of the Haryana Wrestling Association said that the people in Haryana are good at certain sports. The people in other states might be better at playing other sports. So the states that are better in a sport should be encouraged. They should not be held back forcefully. Simply to allow the weaker states to reach the same level. Doing this will not benefit wrestling as a whole. 

Secondly, the new rules talk about facing trials. Reading this post on social media,

 you will think that according to the new rules, every wrestler will have to face trials mandatorily. But that's not written in the rules. The rules give discretionary powers to the Federation. If the Federation feels that a wrestler should face trials before being in the Indian team, then the Federation can demand it. It is not that every wrestler is compulsorily required to appear in trials. It is up to the Federation. Further, this rule provides for Olympic quota winners. There are some particular international tournaments. If a sportsperson wins in those tournaments, then they get an Olympic quota. It's not that wrestlers automatically qualify for the Olympics on the strength of their old medals. Rather these international tournaments work as Olympic trials for wrestlers. According to the new rules of WFI, this Olympic quota will be snatched from the quota winners. And the trials that will be held separately in India. The triumph in these international tournaments won't be considered a trial. Sakshi Malik's husband,

 Satyawart is also a wrestler. He says that these trials are always conducted randomly. The Federation never considers if a wrestler is exhausted because of an event or is injured. They can be called at any time to do a trial. There is no systematic planning for these trials. And that is why WFI has more discretionary power. They have too much control which can lead to mental harr*ssment of wrestlers. Sakshi Malik says that at one point, she was prepared for an international competition. But 4 days before the competition, she was suddenly called for trials. Which was against a wrestler who was way below her in the rankings. But still, the protesting wrestlers are not saying that based on the international competitions they should automatically be qualified without any trial.

"They are repeatedly alleging that we want to play in Olympics directly and not in the competitions. It's not true. I have always, throughout my career, I have played in all the small tournaments and all the national championships. You can see the records you can see my certificates. They are trying to divert attention from our issue. Claiming that we want to play Olympics directly. Whether it's Vinesh or Bajrang, there hasn't been a single game where we have gone without trials." 

You heard it right. Not a single wrestler is protesting against these rules. Some wrestlers have raised other complaints like financial impropriety, unsympathetic planning, and mental torture. But not a single complaint is about trials  When you hear such conspiracy theories on social media or in the media, try to use some logic. If you are told such long stories, you need to check if the people protesting are actually talking about it or not. Two news articles are shared to make this imaginary claim credible.

One article is about the Gujarat National Games which took place in October 2022

and the other is about the National Wrestling Championship which took place in Delhi in December 2022. 

It is made out to be a conspiracy about how the protesting wrestlers have not participated in either of the two games. 

Why did they not participate? 

 Sakshi Malik says that in August 2022, they had participated in the Commonwealth Games where all three of them won gold medals. Sakshi, Bajrang and Vinesh. Apart from them, Deepak Punia, Ravi Dhaiya and Naveen also won gold medals. When they returned like champions, of course, they were busy with different events, so they decided that since the next national games were scheduled literally only a month later, so instead of participating in them, they should take a rest. Sakshi also says that the national games have no relation with any other tournament, so it is not that important to attend. In this news item,

 you can see that apart from Sakshi and Vinesh, many big names missed these national games for various reasons. This is not wrong at all because more youngsters get the opportunity to shine in these games. The second article is from olympics.com which is portrayed in the wrong way in this conspiracy. It is named Selection Trials whereas this is actually the National Wrestling Championship held in Delhi in December 2022. Sakshi says that with the help of this championship one gets access to the National Camp and after that Selection Trials are held for the Asian Games and World Championships. So there are three different things here. National Wrestling Championship, National Camp, and then Selection Trials. Once again, here we can see that

 in this National Wrestling Championship the protesting wrestlers did not participate. But apart from them, there are other big names who did not participate. Like Ravi Kumar Dhaiya, Deepak Punia. 

Sakshi says that there are so many tournaments that it is not possible for any wrestler to attend every tournament at national and international levels. 

So they have to think carefully and strategically about which tournaments to participate in each year, for which tournaments to train and which tournaments to skip. Vinesh Phogat explains her reason for skipping the championship. She had spoken to The Wire.

 Vinesh Phogat : "After I met the Sports Minister it hadn't even been 24 hours, everything that I told the Sports Minister Brij Bhushan knew everything. Because the Sports Minister has asked me about what I told the Prime Minister. Whether he told Brij Bhushan then or whether his office told him, I do not know. But the conversation leaked from there. Within 24 hours, my husband was getting calls about how could we say anything to the Prime Minister. How dare you? We are watching you. We won't let it go. We will kill you. You come to the national camp in Lucknow by road anything can happen. Such things were being said to us at that time. So you can imagine the extent to which we were being tortured. They bothered us in every possible way. We were bothered so much that we would die. That we would commit suicide or harm ourselves. They tried their best to harm us." 

Sakshi Malik's reason for skipping was different. And it is also very interesting to know. She tells us how there are different state teams in the country additionally, there is also a team for the railways. So, Sakshi Malik and Sangeeta Phogat both are railway players.

Sangeeta Phogat is the wife of Bajrang Punia. According to the selection rules, only one wrestler can play in a particular weight category. So, either Sakshi or Sangeeta could play. Because Sakshi had played all the national wrestling championships since she started her career so she decided to give a chance to Sangeeta. Sangeeta was also in her weight category, 62 kgs. So she goes to play and actually, she won a gold medal in that championship. So this whole accusation is very stupid because if Sakshi would have gone to play in this tournament, Sangeeta wouldn't have been able to go. And these conspiracy theories makers would have accused Sangeeta. But from a particular weight category, only one wrestler can fight. Now the next step was the National Camp. Sakshi says that apart from these reasons, injury is very common in sports. So, often the wrestlers who miss national championships due to any problem, request WFI to include their name in the national camp. This has nothing to do with Sakshi, Bajrang, or Vinesh, it is a common thing that every wrestler does. So Sakshi requested the WFI to have her name in the National Camp. And they said that this makes sense because every wrestler who is the winner of the National Wrestling Championship may not reach the National Camp because of a family problem, injury or anything else. There are always some vacant spots in the National Camp. Not only that, getting an exemption from the National Camp is not unusual. Some wrestlers get it and they can still participate in international tournaments. For example, look at this article from September 2020.

 Ravi Dhaiya took a leave from the National Camp for his B.A. final year exams. The same year, Sushil Kumar was also exempted from the National Camp, and despite this, he was allowed to go overseas for training. And he was able to join the Indian squad directly in the world championships. So till now, I have talked about the national games, national wrestling championship, and national camp and now it's time to talk about the trials. There are some trials before every major tournament. Sometimes,

 if two competitions are scheduled very close to each other like if they are 15-20 days apart, then there is a single trial for both competitions. Now, as I discussed in the article earlier, WFI has the authority to exempt any wrestler from the trials. If the WFI can say that a wrestler doesn't need to give a trial, then they won't have to give trials. But Sakshi says that she hasn't even demanded this exemption till now. There is no question of missing trials, whether it's the Asian Games or the World Championships. If they can win medals in the Olympics, Commonwealth, Asian Games and World Championships then these selection trials are not a big deal for them. So, you should pay attention to this, friends. How many big conspiracy theories are being created here to discredit these protesting wrestlers. This is not the first time we are seeing this happening in the country. Before this, when farmers were protesting, so many big conspiracy theories were being created about them. That it was a political conspiracy, or that there was some international involvement, and that their real motive was something else. And the same thing is being done here with wrestlers. The question is, who are these people who don't even spare our Olympic medal winners and try to discredit them? Just to defend a politician. And that too to defend a politician who was the accused in 40 criminal cases at one time. The story on the other side of this is not that complex. You will ask why is the government so hellbent on saving a single politician? Maybe this article written in the Times of India gives some hints.

 Brij Bhushan Singh is a powerful politician in Uttar Pradesh. He is considered a Bahubali type of politician. And it is alleged that if the government removes him from his position, then in the 2024 elections, the BJP government will either have a hard time winning votes in this area. Perhaps this is the reason why PM Modi is so quiet about this issue.

What do you think? let me know in the comments below. If you liked the article,

Thank you very much!