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Mamata Banerjee's ‘don't dare’ warning after women wrestlers burst into tears
The wrestlers have levelled allegations of sexual harassment against Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday blasted the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in a veiled tweet after protesting wrestlers alleged that the Delhi Police manhandled and abused them during a scuffle late last night at Jantar Mantar. The Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo backed the aggrieved wrestlers and said “disrobing the honour of our daughters in this manner is utterly shameful.”
“India stands by its daughters and I as a human being definitely stand by our wrestlers. Law is one for all. “Law of the ruler” cant hijack the dignity of these fighters. You can assault them but can’t break their spirit. The fight is right and the fight will continue,” the chief minister said.
“Don’t dare to hurt our wrestlers, the nation is watching their tears and the nation won’t forgive you. I urge our wrestlers to stay strong, I share all my strength with them,” she added.
Banerjee's tweet came after a video of visibly distraught women wrestlers was widely shared on social media as they broke into tears while accusing the police of misbehaviour. Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal also slammed the BJP over the scuffle at Jantar Mantar between wrestlers and police and called its treatment of national sportspersons shameful and arrogant.
Kejriwal said that arrogance has gone to the head of the BJP and it wanted to run the system through "hooliganism" as he called on people to throw it out of power. Sharing a video of Jantar Mantar, he tweeted "such behaviour with the champion players of the country? This is extremely unfortunate and shameful..."
"I appeal to all the people in the country...no more...do not tolerate BJP's hooliganism, the time has come to uproot the BJP and chase them away," he wrote.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi condemned the manhandling of female wrestlers. "Such behaviour with the players of the country is shameful," he said.
"'Beti Bachao' is just hypocrisy. In fact, the BJP has never shied away from committing atrocities on the daughters of the country," Gandhi said in a tweet in Hindi, while sharing a video of the players in which they are seen accusing the police of beating them up.
