Olympic wrestler Sakshi Malik has claimed that Babita Phogat of the Bharatiya Janata Party was the one who motivated wrestlers to start the protest against Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, aiming to take over his position as president of the Wrestling Federation of India or WFI, India Today reported.
In an interview with India Today TV on Monday, Sakshi Malik also claimed that Babita Phogat had gathered several wrestlers for a meeting, urging them to protest against the federation’s alleged misconduct, including cases of molestation.
“Babita Phogat approached us with the idea of protesting against Brij Bhushan Singh because she had her own agenda — she wanted to become the WFI president,” India Today quoted Sakshi Malik as saying.
“There are rumours that Congress supported our protest, but that’s false. In fact, two BJP leaders helped us secure permission to protest in Haryana - Babita Phogat and Tirath Rana,” the Olympic wrestler added.
Sakshi Malik, who recently released book her ‘Witness’, was one of the three prominent faces of the prolonged protest against Brij Bhushan Singh. Sakshi Malik said their protest developed cracks when “people close to” Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat began to fill their minds with “greed”, news agency PTI reported.
Protest by Sakshi Malik, Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat
The three had alleged that Brij Bhushan, the former head of the Wrestling Federation of India, sexually harassed women wrestlers during his tenure. The case is still being heard in a Delhi court.
{{/usCountry}}The three had alleged that Brij Bhushan, the former head of the Wrestling Federation of India, sexually harassed women wrestlers during his tenure. The case is still being heard in a Delhi court.
{{/usCountry}}The ad-hoc committee, that took over the administration of wrestling after WFI's suspension, exempted Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat from the 2023 Asian Games trials but Sakshi Malik decided not to seek the favour as suggested by her colleagues.
In the India Today interview, Sakshi Malik pointed out that while the protest wasn't entirely influenced by Babita Phogat, it was initiated at her suggestion.
"It's not that we blindly followed her, but we were aware that there were serious issues like sexual harassment and molestation within the federation. We believed that having a woman in charge, especially someone like Babita Phogat, who is also a sportsperson, would bring positive change. We trusted that she would understand our struggles. But we never anticipated that she would play such a big game with us," she said.
The protest ended after the wrestlers' march towards the new Parliament Building was halted by the police on May 28, 2023.
Both Vinesh and Bajrang joined the Congress party before the Haryana assembly elections earlier this month. The former contested and won from the Julana constituency, while the latter was made head of the party's national farmers' unit.
Before the political plunge, Vinesh endured a heartbreaking sporting low when she was disqualified from the 50kg category Olympic finals in Paris for being 100gm overweight.