A day after the suspended Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) asserted that only the national federation has the mandate to organise national championships, the IOA-appointed ad hoc panel said only the tournament organised by it will be considered “genuine”.
The ad hoc panel also made it clear that only the wrestlers who participate in competition conducted by it will get the “benefits”, PTI reports.
The WFI had on Tuesday announced that it will go ahead with the Nationals in Pune from January 29 after its first executive committee meeting post the elections. WFI contended that its constitution mandates only the federation to host the Nationals and the ad hoc panel has no authority to conduct the National Championships.
The Union Sports Ministry, which had suspended WFI citing rules violation, had also said that WFI-organised events will not be recognised.
“It is clarified that only Sr. National Free Style, Greco Roman Style & Women National Wrestling Championships 2023, organised by RSPB is genuine, sanctioned and recognised championship by the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports and all government benefits will only accrue to the sportspersons participating in such National Championships,” panel head Bhupendra Singh Bajwa stated in a press release.
WFI president Sanjay Singh had said on Tuesday that they “will seek a dialogue” with the ministry to get the suspension revoked. It is another matter that Singh and the other cohorts of BJP strongman Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, accused of multiple counts of sexual harassment against women wrestlers and still Indian wrestling’s czar in all but official title, continue to brazenly cock a snook at the authorities. And the reasons are not hard to ascertain. It flows from the political muscle the serving BJP MP from Kaiserganj wields in his home state of Uttar Pradesh.
