Olympic medallists Bajrang Punia and Sakshi Malik have described Wrestling Federation of India’s (WFI) suspension as a “black day” for Indian wrestling, and blamed outgoing president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh for the mess.
The United World Wrestling (UWW) on Thursday suspended the WFI, which is currently run by an ad-hoc committee set up by the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), for failing to conduct its elections within stipulated time.
As a result of the suspension, Indian wrestlers thus will have to compete as neutrals in the World Championships that takes place in Belgrade, Serbia from 16 September.
“Today is a black day for Indian wrestling. Because of Brij Bhushan and his cronies, the country’s wrestlers will not be able to participate representing the Tricolour.
भारतीय कुश्ती के लिए आज काला दिन है. बृजभूषण और उसके गुर्गों के कारण देश के पहलवान तिरंगे के साथ नहीं खेल पाएँगे. तिरंगा देश की शान है और हर खिलाड़ी का सपना होता है कि वह जीतने के बाद तिरंगा को मैदान में लेकर दौड़े. ये बृजभूषण और उसके आदमी देश का कितना नुक़सान करेंगे.
— Bajrang Punia 🇮🇳 (@BajrangPunia) August 24, 2023
“The Tricolour is the pride of the nation and every athlete dreams of waving it around the ground after winning. Brijbhushan and his men will cause such great harm to the country,” is what Bajrang and Sakshi wrote on X (formerly Twitter) on Thursday after the suspension.
World Championships bronze medallist Vinesh Phogat too slammed the WFI and Brij Bhushan for the suspension.
“The amount of damage caused to Indian wrestling by Brij Bhushan, if properly assessed, will come to light. The Tricolour has been insulted because of a mafia,” wrote Vinesh on X.
बृजभूषण की वजह से भारतीय कुश्ती को जितना नुक़सान उठाना पड़ा है, अगर उसका सही से आकलन कर लिया जाए तो इसका कच्चा चिट्ठा सामने आ जाएगा। एक माफिया की वजह से तिरंगे का अपमान हुआ है। pic.twitter.com/QLplJ7WYnT
— Vinesh Phogat (@Phogat_Vinesh) August 25, 2023
Bajrang and Sakshi, who won bronze medals in the Tokyo and Rio Olympics respectively, were key faces along with Vinesh in the protest against Brij Bhushan that took place in the months of April and May earlier this year.
The ace wrestlers accused the Bharatiya Janata Party MP from Uttar Pradesh’s Kaiserganj constituency of sexually harassing several female wrestlers. The protest later led to the Delhi Police filing a chargesheet against him, adding that Brij Bhushan was “liable to be prosecuted and punished for offences”.
As for the WFI elections, the UWW had given the wrestling body a period of 45 days to conduct fresh elections after the ad-hoc committee took over its day-to-day functions on 27 April. However, the elections have since faced several delays with a number of state bodies filing petitions to be part of the election process.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court had deferred the election a day before its scheduled date of 12 August following a petition from the Haryana Wrestling Association. That would be the final delay before the WFI’s provisional suspension by the UWW.
Additionally, Indian wrestling icons Yogeshwar Dutt and Kartar Singh too reacted to the developments. While 2012 London Olympics bronze medallist Dutt labelled the suspension a “very sad thing for Indians”, two-time Asian Games gold medallist Kartar said it would cause an irreparable loss to Indian wrestling.
“It is a very sad thing for Indians in general and wrestlers in particular. If we talk about wrestling in the last 6-7 months, wrestling has been earning a bad name (kushti badnaam hui hai); be it trials or the case of sexual harassment (shoshan ka mamla),” said Yogeshwar.
While they will be forced to compete in the worlds as neutrals unless the WFI is able to hold the elections on time to get the suspension lifted, the Indian wrestlers competing at the Asian Games will be able to do so under the national flag as they have been picked by the IOA instead of the WFI.
Additionally, the IOA-appointed ad-hoc panel has insisted the trials for the World Championships will go ahead as scheduled, and will take place on 25 and 26 August in Patiala.
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