Point of no return

This is the best chance for Indian sport to set up independent grievance redress mechanisms for its athletes

- SHARDA UGRA

THERE HAS BEEN no protest like this in Indian sport. Even when the wrestlers first came out at Jantar Mantar, it was unprecedented. I think at the time they believed that their demands would be met because they had appealed directly to the prime minister; he had hailed them as champions, he spoke so often of Beti Bachao. They thought their appeal would work, but it didn’t.

Brijbhushan Singh, from what I have been told by people who know him, is immensely powerful in the region that he operates in. He has the loyalties of 12 Lok Sabha MPs and 36 MLAs, or so he claims. Also, he seems to be a counter to [Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister] Yogi Adityanath. Perhaps, that is the reason he is being shielded. The other reason is that now it has become a question of ego. The government seems to be thinking, “How dare these women not just go away?” Moreover, we are seeing a certain dispensability of athletes—if political power cannot use them for its ends, they serve no purpose to them. They can be treated like the wrestlers are being treated today.

It is disingenuous to say that there are political forces at play, as if Brijbhushan is a lamb. He is a political person; there will be a political game. The whole point of ‘there is politics at play’ is to take away from what is the central accusation about Brijbhushan’s behaviour against his athletes. Everything else is just news channel talk to fill airtime.

The government is not in the clear because the Delhi Police are sitting on their hands. When you had this oversight committee, did you call Brijbhushan Singh in for questioning? The sports ministry, the Indian Olympic Association and the Wrestling Federation of India are all controlled by people from the same party. And everyone is trying to protect one guy.