Is it Round 1 to Sakshi Malik, Bajrang Punia & Co, then?

The rules of the game say there are no ‘draws’ or ‘tie’ in wrestling. If any match is tied up at the end of three regular periods, then it goes into overtime to break the tie – a situation akin to the state of the battle of nerves between the leading Indian wrestlers and Brij Bhushan Singh, the deposed president of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI).

In what proved to be an anti-climax of sorts, the trio of Sakshi Malik, Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat – faces of the wrestlers’ struggle against Singh and his cohorts – have suspended their protests till June 15 after a meeting with Anurag Thakur, the Union Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs. The minister has apparently assured them that the Delhi Police will complete their investigation into the charges of sexual harassment of the wrestlers, one of them being a minor, by June 15.

In another promise which can be seen as a moral victory for the wrestlers, the Union ministry has also promised them to hold elections to the executive committee of the WFI by June 30 and neither Brij Bhushan – nor any of associates against whom charges had also been levelled – would have a role in the new panel. So far so good, though the buzz is there has been no guarantee from either the all powerful Union Home Minister Amit Shah (who also granted an audience to the wrestlers a few days back) or Thakur about the arrest of Brij Bhushan on the criminal charges.

‘’It is better for the country to have the award-winning grapplers on the mat than on the roads,’’ Thakur told Indian Express, making the right noises as the international sporting community and human rights watchdogs have started waving the red flags. Both the United World Wrestling (UWW), the sport’s international governing body and the International Olympic Committee (IOC), issued strong back-to-back statements condemning the way the wrestlers have been treated.

What eventually led to the powers that-be, which was providing a sort of immunity to Brij Bhusan – a prominent MP of the ruling BJP who wields a considerable influence on a number of parliamentary constituencies in Uttar Pradesh, come down half way to meet the wrestlers? The visuals of the likes of Sakshi grappling with the police of Vinesh being dragged on the streets of Jantar Mantar area on May 28, the day the new Parliament building was being inaugurated, surely proved the flashpoint and hence the ‘damage control’ must have begun.

‘’Indian officials might stoutly claim to defend the rights of women and girls, but when it has been put to test by the country’s foremost athletes, the authorities have resorted to victim blaming and shaming,’’ remarked Joanna Maranhao, network coordinator of the Sport & Rights Alliance.

‘’It takes a lot of courage to break the silence and disclose a case of sexual abuse. We stand with the athletes and encourage the IOC to protect them, especially in this power-imbalanced situation. Their well being should be the top priority,’’ the activist added.

Punia, a silver medallist in Tokyo Olympics, maintained that if there is no action taken by mid-June, they would continue with the protest. However, the indications are that Brij Bhushan will be forced to bid adieu to his fiefdom in wrestling for the foreseeable future – as normal services are resuming in the sport slowly without him being in the framework.

The likes of Punia or Phogat, who had put their sporting ambitions on the backburner, are now eyeing berths in the Hangzhou Asian Games, scheduled to be held from September 23 to October 8. The deadline for team selection in each discipline after trials, according to the Union sports minister, is July 15 and Thakur told the media yesterday that doors for the trials are open for the protesting grapplers.  

Meanwhile, the four-day trials for selection of teams for the Under-15 and Under-20 Asian Championships were conducted in Sonipat in Haryana under an ad-hoc committee formed by the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) to run the affairs of the wrestling body till fresh elections are conducted. Kalyan Choubey, the president of the All India Football Federation (AIFF) and also a prominent member of the BJP, is now the interim CEO of the IOA.

The deadline of June 15 is less than a week away and for now, the authorities have taken a masterstroke of diffusing the agitation with a rash of promises. Just ponder this – it took two Olympic medallists and a Commonwealth Games gold medallist to sustain an agitation for more than a month and give it their all to come this far.

What about the hidden stories in the nook and corner of other sporting disciplines in the country which needs to be cleaned up?

Let us hope the wrestlers' case shows the way...