Prominent Indian wrestlers Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia recently came up with allegations against the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president Sanjay Singh. They accused Singh used his influence to get the ban on the federation lifted by United World Wrestling (UWW), the international governing body of the sport. It has also come to light that the wrestlers also threatened to restart the agitation against the WFI.
Ban lifted
On Tuesday, the UWW lifted the provisional suspension on Indi. However, the body directed the national federation to provide written guarantees that there would be no discriminatory action against the protesting wrestlers like Punia, Malik, and Vinesh Phogat.
It has been noted that the suspension was imposed by UWW in August last year after the WFI failed to hold elections in time. Punia, Malik, and Phogat are protesting for more than a year as they demand the arrest of former WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh for allegedly sexually harassing woman grapplers.
Sakshi Malik accuses WFI President
“We came to know yesterday that Sanjay Singh had done some setting with UWW to get the suspension lifted. Brij Bhushan and Sanjay Singh have left no stone unturned to show that they are above the law,” stated Sakshi in a video posted on ‘X’ (formerly Twitter).
Sports minister Anurag Thakur spoke about the latest developments on the sidelines of the Chess Olympiad Torch hand-off ceremony and said: “We will let you know what we will do.”
Sakshi highlighted that should Brij Bhushan’s loyalists are allowed to run the affairs of the WFI, the protesting wrestlers will be left with no choice but to restart the agitation. “Our protest has only been suspended. I might have retired from wrestling but I not will tolerate Brij Bhushan or his people running the federation and harassing women,” she asserted.
“In the next 2-4 days, we will contact the people associated with our agitation and chalk out the future course of action. I urge the government (to ensure) that Brij Bhushan or his group are barred forever from (running) the federation and that some good people are entrusted with the task of doing the job. Otherwise, we will have to restart the path of protest,” warned Sakshi.
