Politics

Sakshi Malik Claims BJP’s Babita Phogat Encouraged Wrestlers’ Protest to Become WFI Chief

According to Olympic wrestler Sakshi Malik, Babita Phogat, a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was instrumental in inciting wrestlers to demonstrate against former Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh. As per Malik, Phogat was driven by the desire to someday succeed Singh as president of the WFI.

Malik stated in an interview with India Today TV that Phogat had called a conference with a number of wrestlers and encouraged them to voice their opposition to the WFI’s purported wrongdoing, which included harassment and molestation incidents. “Babita Phogat came to us with the idea of protesting against Brij Bhushan Singh because she wanted to become the president of the WFI and she had her own agenda,” Malik said.

Malik added that two BJP leaders, Babita Phogat and Tirath Rana, assisted in obtaining permission for the wrestlers to hold their protest in Haryana, defying reports that the Congress was supporting the event. “There are rumors that Congress supported our protest, but that’s false,” Malik stressed.

Sakshi Malik, who as of late distributed her book Witness, was among the well-known in the extended show, alongside grapplers Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia. She revealed that the influence of “greed” on those close to Bajrang and Vinesh caused the protest to break up.

Protest Against Brij Bhushan Singh

Vinesh Phogat, Bajrang Punia, and Malik have accused former WFI president Brij Bhushan of sexually harassing female wrestlers while he was in office. The matter is still pending trial in a court in Delhi. An ad hoc body assumed control of wrestling administration when WFI was suspended. Although her peers recommended that Sakshi Malik be excluded from the 2023 Asian Games trials, this committee chose to exclude Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat.

Malik clarified in the interview that while Babita Phogat started the demonstration, the wrestlers were aware of more serious problems including sexual harassment in the federation. We knew that there were major problems in the federation, like as sexual harassment and molestation, but it’s not like we mindlessly followed her. We thought it would be beneficial to have a woman in leadership, particularly someone like Babita Phogat, who is also an athlete,” Malik stated. “But we never expected that she would play such a big game with us,” she said, expressing her displeasure.

Political Moves of Vinesh and Bajrang

On May 28, 2023, the wrestlers’ march towards the new Parliament Building was stopped by police, ending the protest. Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat subsequently joined the Congress party in advance of the Haryana assembly elections. Vinesh ran for and won the seat of Julana, and Bajrang was named leader of the national farmers’ unit of the Congress party.

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The difficulties faced by the wrestling community during this turbulent time were further compounded by Vinesh Phogat’s personal sporting low prior to entering politics, when she was eliminated from the 50kg division in the Paris Olympics finals due to her 100-gram weight.