Protesting wrestlers give govt 5 days’ time
The protesting wrestlers gave the government five days’ time today to take action on their primary demand of arresting the former president of Wrestling Association of India (WFI) and BJP MP from Uttar Pradesh, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh for sexually abusing women wrestlers during his long tenure as head of the wrestling body, failing which they would make good their vow of immersing their medals in the Ganga in Haridwar, which they had intended to do today but stopped at the last moment after reaching there.
In the end, they did not. But the threat by the protesting star wrestlers to immerse their medals in the Ganga in Haridwar in protest against no adequate action being taken against the former president of Wrestling Association of India (WFI), Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, also a BJP MP, brought into sharper focus the almost one-and-a-half-month long protest.
The wrestlers, led by Sakshi Malik, Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia gave the government five days to take action as per their demand, which is arresting the MP and former WFI president.
They want his arrest for sexually abusing minor women wrestlers for many years and have also demanded an open narco-analysis test for Brij Bhushan to prove himself right that he really did not abuse them, as he claims.
On Sunday, Delhi Police forcibly detained and then arrested them while they were on their way to the new Parliament complex, while it was being inaugurated, to hold a women’s mahapanchayat to demand action against Singh.
The sight of the wrestlers being dragged into police vans drew widespread condemnation from people across the country, especially on social media, and some of the top sports stars like Neeraj Chopra, Abhivav Bindra, Sunil Chhetri, Irfan Pathan and others strongly condemned the actions and demanded the crisis be resolved in a civilised way.
