One of India’s top female wrestlers says that she detailed her experience of sexual and emotional trauma at the hands of Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief and BJP MP Brij Bhushan to Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his office in 2021.
In one of the two FIRs filed on April 28 against the BJP strongman who is also currently a Member of Parliament, the wrestler mentions she met the Prime Minister. “I informed the Honourable Prime Minister about the repeated sexual, physiological, physical trauma which was meted upon me and other female wrestlers by the accused no.1 [Brij Bhushan] in conspiracy with his close aids,” reads her complaint.
She further says that PM Modi reassured her, promising that the Sports Ministry will look into her grievances and that she would soon get a call from the Ministry. “I felt reinvigorated after meeting him and all such negative thoughts about not being able to play for India and thoughts of committing suicide due to the mental trauma inflicted by the accused and his close associates time and again were gone,” she mentions. She also says that Brij Bhushan came to know of her complaint to the Prime Minister. Soon after, a show cause notice that was earlier issued to her was withdrawn by WFI, and Brij Bhushan and aides stopped exerting pressure on her for some time. But she says that after a short interval, the mental harassment resumed.
Seven women, including a minor, have accused Brij Bhushan of sexually abusing them, and the six women and the minor have detailed altogether 12 instances of sexual assault and at least three instances of Brij Bhushan asking for sexual favours.
It is to be noted that though several wrestlers including India’s top Olympians have been protesting since April 23, the Prime Minister has not yet reacted or issued any statement regarding the allegations against Brij Bhushan. The wrestlers have been stationed at New Delhi’s Jantar Mantar, demanding the arrest of Brij Bhushan, who is also currently a BJP MP.
The protesting wrestlers were manhandled and detained on May 28, by the Delhi police as they tried to march towards the new parliament building, which was then being inaugurated by the PM himself. They then commented that the PM has failed to ‘take care of the daughters of his house’.
Wrestlers Sakshi Malik, Vinesh Phogat, and Bajrang Punia later announced that they will immerse their medals in the Ganga in protest. In a statement issued on May 30, Sakshi Malik said that they will sit on a fast unto death after throwing their medals into the Ganga. “After we let these medals go, the purpose of our lives will flow away with them. And so, we will sit on a hunger strike until death at India Gate. We will always be indebted to this great nation,” the statement read.
She also said that they could not surrender their medals to the Prime Minister as he ‘did not take care of the daughters of his house’. “Rather, our oppressor was invited to the inauguration of the new Parliament and he was posing for photographs in bright white clothes,” Olympian Sakshi said.
The protesting wrestlers were stopped from depositing their medals in the Ganga by the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), which has extended support to them. Naresh Tikait, the president of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), issued an ultimatum to the government, giving them a five-day deadline to address the demands of the wrestlers.