India’s Olympian wrestler quits over election of new wrestling federation chief

FILE PHOTO: Indian wrestler Sakshi Malik at the Commonwealth Games in Britain

India’s top woman wrestler hung her boots in protest against the election of a new federation president – a close aid of the predecessor who has been accused of sexually harassing athletes.

Sakshi Malik, a 2016 Olympics bronze medalist, announced that she was quitting the sport immediately after Sanjay Singh was elected as the Wrestling Federation of India’s (WFI) new chief.

Sanjay Singh is a close aid of Brij Bhushan Singh, who is a six-time lawmaker from prime minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Mr Singh was charged in June with sexually harassing six female wrestlers during his tenure following weeks of protests led by Ms Malik.

The lawmaker has rejected all the charges against him and his case is pending before a trial court.

The wrestlers began their protest in January by camping in the streets of the capital New Delhi. They had later called off the protests after talks with the federal sports minister on the promise of action against Mr Singh.

But the protests resumed again in April due to government inaction alleged by the wrestlers, leading to dramatic scenes of them being briefly detained by Delhi’s police as they tried to march to the new parliament building.

Ms Malik, 31, broke down as she announced her decision to quit wrestling, while the powerful lawmaker and the new WFI president celebrated their “victory”.

“We slept for 40 days on the roads and a lot of people from several parts of the country came to support us,” Ms Malik told a news conference in New Delhi, referring to the protests earlier this year.

“If Brij Bhushan Singh’s business partner and a close aide is elected as the president of WFI, I quit wrestling”, she said before leaving the venue with tears in her eyes.

Asked by reporters about Ms Malik’s decision to quit, Mr Singh said: “I have nothing to do with it.”

Wrestler Vinesh Phogat, who was also at the forefront of the protest, said the “future of wrestling is dark”.

“To whom shall we convey our grief… we are still fighting while training,” Ms Phogat said.

Olympic medallist Bajrang Punia on Friday left his Padma Shri (fourth highest civilian award) on the pavement in front of the parliament after being stopped by the Delhi police.

In a letter to the prime minister, the Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist wrote: “We all spent the night in tears.

“We did not understand what to do, or where to go. The government has given us a lot. I was conferred with the Padma Shri in 2019. I also received the Arjuna, Khel Ratna award. When I got these awards, I was on cloud nine. But today the sadness weighs more. And the reason is a woman wrestler left the sport because of her security.”

The federal sports ministry told PTI news agency that the WFI elections were conducted in a free and democratic manner.

United World Wrestling (UWW), the game’s governing body which had suspended the WFI after the scandal. The WFI missed the August deadline to appoint a new president, forcing Indian wrestlers to compete as neutral athletes in global events.

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