NEW DELHI: Launching a scathing attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the election of Sanjay Singh as the new president of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI), Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala said that the party’s policy is to make your daughter cry and torment.
Followed by the election of Sanjay Singh as the new president of the WFI, Olympic medalist Sakshi Malik announced her retirement from wrestling on Thursday.
Sakshi Malik, who was the face of wrestlers’ protest against former WFI president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh over sexual harassment allegations, on Thursday announced that she is quitting wrestling after his aide Singh was elected president of the federation.
Reacting to this, Surjewala while addressing a press conference in the national capital, said, “The announcement of the retirement of the country’s first female wrestler to win an Olympic berth after the election of BJP MP Brij Bhushan’s assistant and ‘nominee’ Sanjay Singh, accused of sexual harassment daughters is a “dark chapter” in sports history.”
“Modi government has proved that the real slogan is to, “make daughters cry, torment and make sit at home”. This has become the sports policy of the BJP government,” he added.
Hitting out at the BJP-led Central Government, the Congress leader said, “Modi government is directly responsible for ‘atrocities and injustice’ towards champion women wrestlers. This shows that the daughters who raise their voices for justice will be forced to retire and sent home, and the culprits will lash out at the pillars of power, and make fun of the daughters.”
“Perhaps that is why Brij Bhushan Singh, said that ‘Dabdaba tha, Dabdaba rahega’. Not only this, while teasing the daughters who are pleading for justice and giving a clear message to every daughter of the country who is hoping for justice, Singh said that those wrestlers who want to do politics, should do politics, and those who want to do wrestling, should do wrestling,” Surjewala added.
The Congress leader said that this atrocity did not happen only to Sakshi Malik and other wrestler daughters, but has broken the hopes of crores of daughters of the country.
“The wrestlers sat at Jantar Mantar for 39 days, knocking on the doors of Parliament and sobbing to demand justice. But instead of giving justice, the BJP government crushed them with the shoes of Delhi Police and dragged them on the streets. This is the situation when women wrestlers had complained about the atrocities against them even to the Prime Minister, Home Minister and Sports Minister. Even at that time, the daughters of the country had to approach the Supreme Court just to register an FIR. After the Supreme Court order, BJP’s Delhi Police registered an FIR but did not arrest BJP MP Braj Bhushan, saying that the case was registered under non-bailable sections,” he said.
Congress leader and boxer Vijender Singh who was also present at the press briefing with Surjewala said that the sports industry is upset with the announcement of Sakshee Malikkh’s retirement.
“The sports industry is upset with it (wrestler Sakshee Malikkh’s retirement). We will go to every player, every stadium and every ‘akhada’ and speak to them about women’s safety, the employment of the athletes and we will stand with them,” he said.
“Being a player, I can understand her pain. The only female medalist in wrestling demanded justice but she did not get it. Pained by this, she retired. The image of India in the whole world would increase or decrease? The whole sports industry is disappointed. They blame that there is discrimination between boys and girls in Haryana and there are fewer girls. After this, would the parents send their daughters to the stadium? The parents of the daughters would be concerned that if an Olympic medalist is not given justice, how will we get it? The PM, Vice President, and President all should come and answer why this happened… This raises a lot of questions on the justice system and the democratic structure,” Singh told ANI.
The Wrestling Federation of India elections were held on Thursday after several postponements earlier in the year.
A panel led by Sanjay Singh won the WFI election. The other panel got seven votes.
Sanjay Singh served on the WFI’s previous executive council. Since 2019, he has also served as the national federation’s joint secretary.
Earlier this month, Bajrang Punia and Sakshi Malik met Union Sports Minister Anurag Thakur at his residence in the national capital for discussions on the WFI polls.
Sakshi’s husband, Satyawart Kadian, a wrestler himself, was also among those who called on the minister. Speaking to reporters after the meeting, the wrestlers said they were assured that the government would keep its promise that no one related or close to Brij Bhushan would get a post in the WFI. (ANI)