The mess in the wrestling arena is far from over. Infact, it has turned murkier by the day and has transpired into a multi-dimensional fight that started with a handful of top wrestlers accusing the then-Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh of sexual misconduct against female grapplers, before his close aide Sanjay Singh won the WFI president’s post to fuel another protest from the likes of Sakshi Malik, Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat, with the former announcing her retirement and the other two returning their awards.
While there has been no action on the mat since January 2023, it has been an action-packed face-off ever since, with the newly-elected body being suspended by the sports ministry, and in their place, an ad-hoc committee has been formed to run the WFI, leading to another protest, this time from the junior wrestlers against the stars – Bajrang, Sakshi and Vinesh.
Sanjay Singh, meanwhile, isn’t ready to accept the ruling of the sports ministry, and is reportedly expected to take the legal route to challenge the new body’s suspension. And in this regard, Singh stated that the WFI will be holding an Executive Committee meeting on January 16 to discuss the matter.
“We do not recognize the suspension. We were elected democratically, and so there’s no question of recognizing the ad-hoc committee. We are calling an EC meeting on January 16,” he said.
Singh further said that the agenda before the EC will primarily be about holding the age group national championships, which he had earlier announced to conduct before December 31 at Gonda in Uttar Pradesh, leading to his suspension for the abrupt announcement of dates without giving the wrestlers proper time to prepare for the tournaments.
Hours after he was elected the president of the WFI on December 21, Singh had hastily announced his intentions of conducting the U-15 and U-20 national championships leading to his suspension, with the sports ministry noting that the announcement was made “without following due procedure and not giving sufficient notice to wrestlers” for preparations.
As the year turned, the turmoil took a new twist with the junior wrestlers from various parts of UP, Haryana, Punjab and Delhi assembling at Jantar Mantar on Wednesday to protest the loss of one crucial year of their careers — a situation for which they blamed the trio of Sakshi, Bajrang and Vinesh.
Hundreds of young grapplers joined in the protest, shouting slogans against the three top wrestlers, as the police was completely caught off guard and found it challenging to manage the crowd.
Carrying banners that read, “UWW save our wrestling from these 3 wrestlers,” the protestors also defaced the placards bearing images of the three star grapplers and later trampled those.