The Wrestling Federation of India is back. Former boss Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh is still suspended with criminal charges

Immediately along the protest location on which he lived, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh showed no sign of being disturbed, let alone displace. The wrestlers then said they were marching to the new parliament building on the day on which it was inaugurated. Instead, the police dragged them onto the street in Delhi, pushed them into buses and removed them from the public.

When they threatened to throw their medals into the ganga, a hasty patch-up was conveyed by the mighty peasant union.

According to instructions from the Supreme Court, the police had to submit criminal complaints in Delhi. But the most outrageous of them by a minor who had been brought to trial under India's strict protection of children from sexual crimes (Pocso) was mysteriously withdrawn.

Under pressure from the Indian Olympic Committee, new elections for the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) were finally held in December 2023, but Brij Bhushans chosen Proxy, Sanjay Singh, easily won.

They didn't even bother to do so, Singh (Sanjay, not Brij Bhushan) promptly announced that they would take place under 13 and under 20 citizens in Gonda, which falls under the constituency of Kaiserganj, from where the BJP Strongman won six locomotives.

Until then, the political climate had changed a little. State elections in Haryana, from which many of the wrestlers come and have enormous soil support, stood around the corner. So the general elections were. Like all parties, the BJP counted on the voice of the woman. In December 2023, the Ministry of Sports finally announced that WFI is suspended.

Game further

An indication of how quickly things in India change came at the beginning of this week when the same ministry that had previously been suspended, announced on Tuesday that it was time to impair this suspension since the “continued governance empty space … The Indian medal prospects in the Asian Games 2026 and 2028 Los Angeles Olympics”.

The decision of the Ministry reports Hindustan Times “will not only open India's participation in international events, but also enable WFI to organize national camps after two years of gap.” Only days later on Saturday, exams on the Asian championships took place in Neu -Delhi.

“Sanjay Singh, who was Brij Bhushan Sharan Singhs Shadow, is back. The remote control is back in his hands, ”says Senior Advocate Rahul Mehra, who represented Phogat and Punia in court.

The argument that the suspension is revoked because wrestler suffers is captivating and continues. “There was so much what they could have done, including the introduction of reforms by an IOA-proclaimed ad hoc committee. But what have you done in the past year and a half? Absolutely nothing. “

Kapil Sibal, MP Rajya Sabha and Senior Advocate, who represented the wrestlers at the Supreme Court, described the ministry's decision to revoke suspension, “the amount of unilateralism. There is no moral problem. “

Take up mighty men

The ministry's decision to revoke the suspension of the WFI takes place days after a court in Mumbai has sparked two criminal matters of the actress Tanushe Dutta against actor Nana Patekar. The court said that Dutta's complaint about sexual harassment had been submitted beyond the prescribed limitation period.

It was Dutta's revelations in 2018, a few years earlier to be bothered in a film defined by Patekar that illuminated the spark of the extraordinary Metoo movement in India. But in the six years, since many of the allegations decreased-newly through criminal defamation cases threatened quietly and many men took the simple way to wait until the wind changed.

It takes remarkable grit to define sexual harassment against mighty men. Then Prime Minister Ranjan Gogoi, who was accused by an employee of the Junior Court, quickly relieved his colleagues and is now a member of Rajya Sabha after acceptance. And while MJ Akbar had to withdraw as a junior minister of external matters, he returned to over 20 women for sexual assault by submitting against one of them against one of them, journalist Priya Ramani, against one of them defamed. After winning to court, Akbar submitted to the Supreme Court of Delhi where the matter is now.

The wrestlers fought the good fight, says Rudraneil Sengupta, author of Enter The Dangal, who has followed the protest. “Now it is due to the system to give them justice.”

And it's not over yet – not a long shot. The criminal proceedings against Brij Bhushan continue the evidence of six women. Although the minor has withdrawn her testimony and although there are no signs that the case soon comes to the conclusion, the women have remained firm. After the reinstatement of WFI Vinesh Phogat is now swearing a congress -Mla from Haryana to fight.

Maybe the public mood has also changed. The developments in Kerala after the publication of the report of the Hema Committee under pressure from the extraordinary women in the cinema collective group certainly give rise to hope. The message is clear: justice for women because of sexual harassment remains difficult, but not impossible.

As early as May 2023, I asked Sakshi Malik what she would do if she was losing if you lost if you were losing. Without a break, she looked at me directly and replied: “But we won't.”