”Indian Wrestlers Take a Stand.”
Indian wrestlers started demonstrating in January 2023 in support of a probe into claims that BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh had sexually harassed female wrestlers when he served as the Wrestling Federation of India’s (WFI) president. The female wrestler complainants accuse Bhushan of grabbing, caressing breasts and navels without consent, stalking, intimidation, and demanding “sexual favours” in return for professional treatment. This has caused a “shared sense of fear and trauma” among the female wrestlers, they claim. In front of a committee that was constituted by the government, Bhushan refuted all accusations.
In January 2023, sit-in demonstrations were organised in Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, bringing Bhushan’s alleged sexual harassment to light. The demonstrations were put to an end in January 2023 after it was promised that the Central Government would set up a commission to investigate the claims. On April 5, 2023, the committee submitted their findings, but it wasn’t made public. The protesters resumed their protests on April 23, 2023, criticising the government’s inaction and the committee’s bias in favour of the accused.
Bhushan is a member of the Bhartiya Janata Party, which controls Delhi’s Delhi Police as well as the Central government. Inaction and a refusal to file a first information report (FIR) were said to have occurred on the part of Delhi Police. Even though Indian law requires the early registration of a FIR for actions that are punishable, such as sexual harassment, the FIRs were only filed after the Supreme Court became involved. Bhushan was arrested in accordance with the POCSO statute, which recognises all offences as cognizable.
The government has been charged with seeking to shield Bhushan, a member of the governing party, according to many organisations and opposition parties. The opposition parties have criticised both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah for remaining mute over the incident.
Many lawmakers expressed support for the demonstrations and went to the demonstration location. A lot of well-known athletes have expressed their support. Many agricultural unions supported the demonstrations, stating that the wrestlers are from rural communities.
International federations of sport United World Wrestling and the International Olympic Committee denounced the abuse, arrest, and temporary incarceration of the wrestlers on May 28, 2023, and called on the authorities to investigate the charges against Bhushan. If they did not, Indian participants would be forced to withdraw from the competition.
Thirty Indian wrestlers, including Olympic medallist’s Vinesh Phogat, Sakshi Malik, Anshu Malik, and Bajrang Punia, staged a sit-in in January 2023 to demand the dissolution of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) and accuse its president, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, and its coaches of sexually harassing female players for years. Due to the government’s pledge to form an oversight committee to look into the claims, the demonstrations were suspended in January 2023. In April 2023, the protesting wrestlers renewed their actions, blaming the authorities’ inactivity.
The case involves seven complainants, one of them is a kid. Accusations against Brij Bhushan and WFI secretary Vinod Tomar are included in the case’s FIRs. The accusations include at least two instances of demanding sexual favours in exchange for expert advice, at least 15 instances of sexual harassment, involving groping and improper touching such as running hands over the breasts, navel, and buttocks, and several instances of intimidation, including stalking. The wrestlers who are making the complaint claim that the accused’s actions have traumatised them. To avoid encountering the accused alone, the female wrestlers only went out for lunch in groups, according to the FIRs. One of the complainants said the accused threatened to punish her if she refused to submit to physical contact with him during the future tournament trials.
The World Wrestling Championships medallist Vinesh Phogat alleged that Bhushan had “mentally harassed, tortured, and threatened to kill” her after she complained about him to the then-Modi and the then-sports minister Anurag Thakur. She was subjected to intense public criticism for the same on the pretext of failing to win a medal in the 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
The events occur between the years of 2012 and 2022 at various locations, including restaurants, the WFI office, competitions, and warm-ups. A number of incidents are said to have occurred both at home and in international competitions. One of these female wrestlers said that Bhushan sent thugs to threaten her family, warning them of “dire consequences” if she reported the occurrences to the WFI Committee. A wrestler claimed she reported the alleged harassment to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in person, and that he promised her that the sports ministry will address the situation.
Brij Bhushan, the main accuser, has consistently refuted the charges. He refused to give up his position as WFI president, stated that the wrestlers’ demands were always changing, and said that the wrestlers who were protesting belonged to a single group. However, 90% of the wrestlers from Haryana backed him. The accused allegedly threatened to compel the government to weaken the POCSO Act, which served as India’s main statute against child sexual abuse. Another statement from the defendant claimed that laws intended to safeguard women were being abused. He had said that if even one accusation against him were to be substantiated, he would hang himself.