The top BJP leadership has asked the former head of the Indian wrestling federation Brij Bhushan Singh to refrain from speaking to the media, especially regarding wrestlers Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia.
This directive comes amid sexual harassment allegations against the party leader from several female wrestlers. Singh has been urged not to comment on the political moves of the athletes who joined Congress earlier this week.
‘Conspiracy’
On Saturday, Brij Bhushan Singh had said Vinesh and Bajrang were used as “pawns” in a “conspiracy” to take control of the wrestling federation and attack the BJP. His comments came after Olympians Phogat and Punia joined the Congress party. The senior BJP leader reiterated that former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda was behind the plot against him as he had defeated his son Deepender Singh Hooda in the 2012 WFI elections.
“They (Punia and Phogat) were faces… they were mohrey (pawns). They were used like pawns by (former Haryana chief minister) Bhupinder Hooda, the Congress and the Congress family,” he told PTI Videos. “This was all conspired to gain a hold on the Wrestling Federation of India and to attack the BJP and its ideology…This team of Rahul, the Congress keeps doing these things,” he said.
Alleged sexual harassment
It was in 2012 when Singh first got control of WFI after a bitter turf war with Hooda. He had a vice-like grip on the body before the protest against him started last year for allegedly sexually harassing and intimidating women wrestlers. Phogat and Punia, who is an Olympic bronze-medallist, along with another Olympic bronze-winner Sakshi Malik spearheaded the agitation.
As a result, Singh, who was a six-time Lok Sabha MP from Uttar Pradesh’s Kaiserganj constituency, had to step down from the position of WFI head and he is also facing criminal charges in the court. After his ouster, his close aide Sanjay Singh was elected as the head of WFI but the body has still not got recognition from the sports ministry even though the world governing body for wrestling, UWW, has endorsed it.
On Friday, both Phogat and Punia stated that they would continue the fight against Singh with the former asserting she would ensure that no woman faces what she had to go through. The 30-year-old, who is a two-time world championships medallist besides being an Asiad gold-winner, will be contesting from the Julana constituency in the Haryana assembly polls scheduled next month.
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