No relief for our top wrestlers

It will be legitimate to ask if the suspension of the newly elected body of the Wrestlers Federation of India (WFI) by the Ministry of Sports is an indirect signal that the Government is waking up to the pleas of much decorated wrestlers to not allow anyone close to the former chief of the Federation Brijbhushan Sharan Singh to assume the mantle of leadership of the body which had been in news for all wrong reasons.

As of now, the reasons for the move, as mentioned to the media, sound technical with no relationship to the charges of sexual misconduct levelled by the two leading women wrestlers in league with their male colleague.

While this may be construed as some action by the Ministry, it leaves the issue unaddressed and brings no relief to the wrestlers who sat on protest at the Jantar Mantar for over two months earlier this year.

Their demands had included arrest of the then WFI chief Brijbhushan Sharan Singh, member of Parliament from Gonda; conduct of free and fair election for the Federation; appointment of a woman chief of the WFI; and that Singh or any of his family members should not be part of the WFI.

Garlanding of Brijbhushan at the victory celebration three days ago following election of the Federation instead of the new incumbent, made it quite evident that the new chief is a loyalist and a mere proxy of his predecessor embroiled in the controversy and court cases.

No wonder then why the grappler Bajrang Punia announced returning his Padma Shri award and wrestler Sakshi Malik quitting the sport.

No one was left in doubt that the former chief who has enjoyed the impunity all this long, would be calling the shots at the Federation as 13 of the 15 new office-bearers were his loyalists.

What is unfolding before the nation in the WFI saga is a sad spectacle and testifies to the partisan role of the ones holding the reins of power.

It is a travesty of justice that those who found a ruse in Nirbhaya rape and murder case to mobilise protestors against the Manmohan Singh Government in 2013, have not merely turned deaf to the screams for justice from the world renowned sportswomen but have done all that they could to shield the perpetrators.

This inglorious record of apathy does no credit to the wielders of power at Delhi and is likely to discourage budding sporting geniuses among women from taking up careers in sports.