Boxing greatness and Olympic medalist Boxing great Mary Kom will lead the Sports Ministry’s oversight committee to manage the day-to-day affairs of wrestling amid #MeToo wrangling. The ministry on Saturday had instructed the Wrestling Federation of India to suspend “all ongoing activities with immediate effect”, including the Ranking Tournament in Gonda, UP, Sharan’s stronghold. It also suspended Wrestling Federation of India’s (WFI) deputy secretary Vinod Tomar, a result of the grapplers’ sexual harassment and corruption allegations against the sports body’s chief, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.
Last week, union minister Anurag Thakur had announced the formation of the oversight committee after a lengthy meeting with the protesting wrestlers, including Vinesh Phogat, Bajrang Punia, Sakshi Malik and Babita Phogat.
“It has been decided that an oversight committee will be formed. The names will be announced tomorrow. The committee will complete its investigation within four weeks. The wrestlers have put forward their demands. I have assured them that appropriate action will be taken. All allegations of sexual harassment and financial embezzlement will be investigated,” Thakur said at a press conference on Saturday.
“Until the investigation is over, he (Singh) will step aside and cooperate with the investigation and the oversight committee will run the day-to-day running of WFI.”
Earlier, the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) formed a seven-member commission to investigate allegations of wrestler sexual harassment against federation president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh. Mary Kom is also the chairperson of that panel. Indian Weightlifting Federation of India (IWLF) president Sahdev Yadav, archer Dola Banerjee and Olympic medalist Yogeshwar Dutt are part of the panel. The committee will also have two lawyers. The panel will talk to the protesting wrestlers first and then the WFI before reaching a conclusion.
Vinesh Phogat, the first Indian female wrestler to win gold at both the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games, had said on Wednesday that “national coaches have harassed and received death threats from WFI officials over the years.” Along with other top Indian wrestlers, she held a massive protest at the Jantar Mantar in New Delhi from Wednesday, calling for the removal of the WFI president from the post.
Rio Olympic medalist Sakshi Malik, World Championship medalist Sarita Mor, Sangeeta Phogat, Anshu Malik, Sonam Malik, Satyawart Malik, Jitender Kinha, Amit Dhankar and CWG medalist Sumit Malik were among the wrestlers who gathered at the famous protest site.
“It’s better to die once than to die slowly every day. We can’t sleep at night because we have no idea whether we’re going to compete or not. Whether we’re going to the national camp or not. We doubt that these coaches and their supporters can enrich our food and that we can become positive during the doping test,” Vinesh Phogat previously told DailyExpertNews.
“So we are concerned about all these things. As the president Brij Bhushan ji said he is innocent, I tell you that we sent him numerous emails but he never replied to them. Now we have to go to his room for everything?”
Vinesh, a world championship medalist and Olympian, also alleged that several coaches at a national camp in Lucknow have exploited female wrestlers, adding that there are a few women in the camp who approach wrestlers at the behest of the WFI president.
“Some of the coaches are close to the national federations. Those coaches have exploited young girls. I don’t know how many young girls have suffered because of them,” said Vinesh.
However, the 28-year-old clarified that she has not faced such exploitation herself, but claimed that she had received death threats from officials close to him at the behest of the WFI president because she dared to draw the attention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to draw attention to various problems facing India. struggling when she met him after the Tokyo Games.
“I know at least 10 to 20 female wrestlers who have told me about the sexual exploitation they faced at the hands of (the) WFI president. They told me their stories. I can’t take their names right now, but I can certainly take the names as we meet the country’s prime minister and interior minister,” Vinesh said.
“I have received death threats from people close to the WFI president. If anything happens to any of us here, the WFI president alone will be responsible.”
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