The decision by some of India’s best known sportspersons to suspend their protest ~ at least until 15 June ~ will come as a breather for the government which had, for reasons no one has quite understood, allowed the problem to fester for several months. While the desire to protect, and keep protected, the powerful head of the Wrestling Federation of India and ruling party MP, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, whose influence in some parts of Uttar Pradesh is said to be significant, has often been cited as the reason for the government’s intransigence, this cannot be the only explanation. In the past too, the government has shown a tendency to circle the wagons whenever one of its own is involved and it goes without saying that it would like the problem to go away without having to act against Mr. Singh.

Apprehensions, thus, that it is only buying time, by assuring wrestlers that the police probe into the allegations leveled by them will be concluded by 15 June and charge-sheets presented by that date, will persist. It is therefore not surprising that the wrestlers have only agreed to suspend their protest. Certain facts cannot be wished away, however indulgent the government might choose to be towards Mr. Singh. The allegations are serious and would have merited immediate action if the person accused had been anyone but a powerful politician. As much as they are a comment on an individual’s conduct, they suggest institutional decay, for it is quite clear that the federation Mr. Singh headed had no mechanism in place to address complaints of this nature nor an environment where a man in a position of power would feel compelled not to abuse it. The situation, it must be admitted, is not very different in other sports bodies.

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By ensuring a truce, Sports Minister Anurag Thakur would only have delayed the inevitable if the government is not serious about taking action merited by the allegations against Mr. Singh or tries to dilute the case. But, equally, the government may have decided that it has allowed this problem to fester for far too long. Issues pertaining to women have been a cornerstone of the Prime Minister’s policies, a fact acknowledged just a couple of days ago by Mr. Narendra Modi when he extolled the limitless potential of Indian women. That may well have been the gentle push Mr. Thakur needed to reach out to the wrestlers on Wednesday. Politically, too, it makes little sense for the government to give a stick to the powerful farmers’ lobby of north India to beat it with. While things will become clear a week from now, all sensible Indians will hope that the matter reaches resolution as soon as possible. Much hinges on the action that is taken ~ the protest by wrestlers, the larger issue of the Wrestling Federation’s future and of course the need to reassure the constituency of women that the government is serious about empowering them.