NEW DELHI: The disgraceful goings on in the Wrestling Federation of India has had its inevitable outcome. United World Wrestling (UWW) on Thursday suspended the WFI’s membership with immediate effect.
The action taken by the international governing body of the sport means that Indian wrestlers will not be able to compete in the upcoming World Wrestling Championships under the Indian flag, and instead will have to participate as ‘neutral athletes’. Also, if an Indian athlete were to make it to the winners’ podium, the national anthem will not be played.
While reasons cited for the WFI’s membership being suspended were the lack of elections in the organisation, the fact remains that the WFI has been mired in controversy over the last year, primarily centred around the charges of sexual assault and various forms of harassment brought against the federation’s president and Bharatiya Janata Party MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh. Protesting wrestlers have accused the Union government of protecting the BJP leader, and held a months-long protest in Delhi before being displaced by the police.
Elections were supposed to be held in June but have been delayed several times after that with multiple “disgruntled and disaffiliated” state bodies moving the court, seeking the right to participate in the polls.
The Returning Officer had then set July 11 as the date for WFI elections, but in what had all the markings of a strategically coordinated move, the defunct Assam association moved the Gauhati High Court, and succeeded in getting an immediate stay on the polls rescheduled for June 25 and the next hearing was set for July 28.
However, the Andhra state association challenged the decision in the Supreme Court which quashed the Gauhati High Court decision on July 18, paving the way for the conduct of the polls.
The Returning officer then declared August 12 as the new poll date but a day before the elections, Punjab and Haryana High Court stayed the process on an application moved by Haryana Wrestling Association (HWA), which was led by Deepinder Singh Hooda before being suspended by WFI.
HWA had challenged the move to allow Haryana Amateur Wrestling Association to cast votes in the WFI polls.
Now this case is also pending in the Supreme Court and is likely to be heard on Friday.
UWW has had enough of the WFI’s shenanigans
The UWW in its letter on April 28, which was also marked to IOA and the Union Sports Ministry, had reminded that it has already taken “a measure in this situation by reallocating the Asian Championship planned in New Delhi earlier this year.” The Championship was moved out of the country due to the controversy surrounding the outgoing WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who has been accused of sexually abusing several women wrestlers.
On the matter of WFI’s suspension, UWW intimated the Indian Olympic Association of its decision in a letter, The Indian Express reported. “The IOA has received a communication and will decide the future course of action, including the selection of teams for the World Championships,” an official told the newspaper.
In June, when there had been widespread coverage of the wrestlers’ protest and the police’s manhandling and detention of wrestlers, the UWW had threatened to suspend India’s membership to protest the treatment of athletes. At the time, it had given the WFI a 45-day deadline to hold elections, and said “Failing to do so may lead UWW to suspend the federation, thereby forcing the athletes to compete under a neutral flag.”
Meanwhile, World Championship trials were to be held in Patiala on August 25 and 26. The fate of the trials is unclear at the moment.
