Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, the head of the Indian Wrestling Federation, has been accused of sexual harassment and is the target of a backlash from some of the sport’s top competitors. On Sunday, he claimed that Congressman Deepender Hooda was behind the plot against him and praised SP leader Akhilesh Yadav for standing up to the protesters.
The bronze-medal-winning wrestler from the Tokyo Olympics, Bajrang Punia, was allegedly also a part of the plot against Singh, who is now a BJP member of parliament.
The WFI president is in the centre of a storm after grapplers accused him of sexual harassment and called for both his arrest and dismissal from the Wrestling Federation of India. The Congress and the AAP, among other political parties, have backed the wrestlers.
Singh, who has up till now refused to retire from his position, stated that he would be willing to do so if it would cause the protesters to return to their homes. “I’m ready to resign if they go back and sleep soundly after mine.” While speaking with reporters at his Bishnoharpur home, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh claimed that Congressman Deepender Hooda and wrestler Bajrang Punia were behind the conspiracy. We can demonstrate this using an audio (clip). It will be given to the Delhi Police when the time comes. The WFI president stated, “The fight has now been taken out of the players’ hands” in reference to political officials visiting the protest site of wrestlers in Delhi’s Jantar Mantar. There are political parties involved in this. I noticed the warning signs right away. “I want to thank the leader of the Samajwadi Party Akhilesh Yadav (for not siding with the protesting wrestlers),” the WFI president said in a statement to PTI. He and I go back to his early years. I am his senior. Despite our political differences, Akhilesh is aware of the truth. “If there are 10,000 wrestlers in Uttar Pradesh, 8,000 of them are Yadavs who are Samajwadi family members. So they are aware of the truth, he said.
On Friday, the Delhi Police filed two FIRs against Singh in response to claims of sexual harassment made by seven female wrestlers. The second FIR dealt with outraging modesty, whereas the first one was about claims against a young wrestler and was filed under the POCSO Act.
The Kaiserganj BJP MP continued by saying that the demonstrators are nothing more than “toys” in the hands of the opposition.
“The Congress and other opposition parties have turned all of these players into toys. In contrast to my resignation, their motivation is political, Singh claimed, adding that he had not yet had a copy of the FIR filed against him.
The head of the WFI questioned why the railway board did not intervene to prevent wrestlers connected to the railroads from staging a sit-in protest at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar.
They have the right to demonstrate. But can a member of the railway team sit through a demonstration like this, where objectionable chants are being made against Yogi Adityanath, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi?
Don’t bring the party (BJP) into this, the BJP MP stated in response to a question. These accusations are made against me as Wrestling Federation of India President, not as a BJP MP. “I need to establish my innocence… If the party requests it, I will step down right away.
Singh remarked that Priyanka Gandhi, the leader of the Congress, “does not know the facts” regarding her involvement in the wrestlers’ protest. She was escorted to the protest location by Deepender Hooda, the plot’s mastermind. “She will understand that she should not have gone to the protest location the day she learns the truth or the day the investigation report is out. I formally dare them to run against me in the Lok Sabha elections from Kaiserganj, Gonda, Shravasti, or any other nearby seat. The outcome will put all misunderstandings to rest. The BJP MP asserted that “a big industrialist is responsible for the conspiracy against me.” When asked who the industrialist was, he responded, “If I do, he’ll kill me.” The protesting wrestlers had issued a warning against utilising their platform for political purposes on Saturday, alleging that not many people were attempting to refocus their quest for justice.
