More than a week into a second round of protests by wrestlers against the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) and its president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh in New Delhi, one entity that has been conspicuously silemt is the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) Athletes Commission.
And it continues to remain so. The commission on Sunday reportedly decided against releasing a statement expressing solidarity for the protesting wrestlers.
The “hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil” approach by the Athletes Commission is still several notched better than the obsequious position taken by IOA president PT Usha last week wherein she declared that “wrestlers staging protests on streets amounts to indiscipline and tarnishes the country’s image”.
According to a report on the Indian Express, the Athletes Commission — headed by boxing legend MC Mary Kom — had drafted a statement following a meeting on Saturday which was to be neutral in tone by calling for more measures to be put in place to ensure athletes’ safety.
The report, however, stated that Olympic medal-winning shooter Gagan Narang voted against the idea, saying it was “too late” to release a statement more than a week into the second round of protests by the wrestlers.
Leading Indian wrestlers including Sakshi Malik, Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia are leading a second round of protests at Jantar Mantar in the national capital demanding the arrest of the under-fire WFI chief, who has been accused of sexually harassing several wrestlers, besides inflicting mental harassment as well as financial misappropriation.
The Delhi Police, meanwhile, after prodding from the Supreme Court, have filed two FIRs against Brij Bhushan, one of which involves the POCSO Act pertaining to the allegation of sexually assaulting a minor. This was more than a week after the wrestlers filed a complaint at the Connaught Place police station, and only after the matter was taken to the apex court.
The wrestlers had initially staged protests at the same site in January, but called it off just three days later after a meeting with Union Sports Minister Anurag Thakur, who announced the formation of an six-member oversight committee that was tasked with investigating the claims against Brij Bhushan.
The committee was formed on January 23 with five members. Besides Mary Kom, it included Olympic Bronze medallist Yogeshwar Dutt, former shuttler Trupti Murgunde and former SAI administrators Radhica Sreeman and Rajesh Rajagopalan. However, Babita Phogat was added as a sixth member of the panel a week later as the protesting wrestlers said they were not consulted by the ministry.
The panel was given four weeks to arrive at a conclusion. After four weeks became more than three months with zero action and radio silence on the part of the oversight committee, the wrestlers returned to Delhi abd renewed their sit-in protest.
Brij Bhushan, also a powerful Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP from Gonda, Uttar Pradesh, who has the full backing of the party machinery, has denied the charges levelled against him.
