Wrestlers' Protest: Mass Demonstrations Denounce Delhi Police's Treatment of Protesters

The farmers’ organisations across the country protested on Thursday against the ill-treatment of women wrestlers and demanded the immediate arrest of Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, former Wrestling Federation of India Chief who has been accused of sexual harassment.

The protests organised at the district and block headquarters following an appeal by Samyukta Kisan Morcha, an umbrella organisation of farmers’ unions, saw widespread participation with visuals coming from Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala among other states. The participants submitted a memorandum addressed to the President of India through district magistrates.

Tejvir Singh from Bharatiya Kisan Union (Shahid Bhagat Singh) said that they held protests at four places in Haryana including Kaithal, Ambala, and Kurukshetra. Talking to NewsClick over the phone, Singh said that the pictures depicting the ill-treatment of wrestlers have enraged people in rural areas.

He said, “People can clearly see that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has no respect for women. They are defending Sandeep Singh who molested a woman coach. They are defending Brij Bhushan Singh too. I must add here that the use of police force to abuse people has become a tool for BJP too. Before wrestlers, they had beaten sarpanches who had assembled in Panchkula last month.”

“It is necessary to arrest him immediately because we can clearly see the impact of pressure exerted on the minor’s family. An uncle claimed that she was not a minor when she was molested. However, the family rebuked this claim,” he added.

Jagmati Sangwan, leader of All India Democratic Women Association who has been associated with agitation from the initial days, led a protest in Rohtak city which concluded at Mansarovar Park. Talking to NewsClick, she said that the protest saw huge participation of trade union workers, youths, students, and women.

“I informed people about the upcoming protest on June 5 when effigies of Brij Bhushan Singh will be burnt – while he will be organising a religious assembly in Faizabad to demand changes in the POCSO Act. I can clearly sense that the issue of the security of daughters is reverberating among all castes now,” she said.

Sangwan also lambasted the statement by Union Minister Smriti Irani who advocated for non-interference in the investigation by the centre. “It is sheer foxiness to say that law should take its own course. No, the law is not taking its own course. The FIR was registered when the Supreme Court intervened. There is immense pressure of power and money on the family to succumb,” she claimed.

Protests were also seen in neighbouring Punjab where people assembled in large numbers at the district headquarters in Patiala, Mansa, Sangrur, and Bathinda among other districts. The protests also saw the participation of professors, lawyers, and intellectuals too.

Amrit Pal, an activist of the Students’ Federation of India who participated in a protest at Patiala Mini Secretariat, told NewsClick that girls had to fight with families to opt for sports like wrestling. “Now families have got another excuse to stop girls. Thus, this trend of going abroad to settle down will only accelerate. These girls could have contributed to sports and brought glory. The people are also dismayed as cricket and Bollywood personalities are silent on the issue.”

The memorandum submitted to the President of India, by Samyukta Kisan Morcha read, “We at Samyukta Kisan Morcha are extremely disturbed by this chain of events. As a daughter of a farmer yourself, you know that wrestling is a rural sport and most of the victims of the predation and villainy of Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh are from rural/farmers’ families. Hence, we are concerned that daughters of farmers who have worked very hard to achieve international fame and have brought great glory to India are being treated with utmost cruelty by the Union Government, at the behest of people who are politically very powerful.”

It added, “The sportspersons had to even approach the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India and only after the Hon’ble Court began hearing the matter, the Delhi Police, much belatedly registered two FIRs against the accused Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh. Unfortunately, thereafter the Delhi Police has been dragging its feet and has not proceeded with investigation and prosecution.”

“When the sportspersons continued their protest and peacefully marched at Delhi on 28th May 2023, the Delhi Police, under the control of the Union Government, brutally suppressed their protest march, detained them, lodged FIRs against them and then forcefully removed them from their peaceful protest site at Jantar Mantar. This was totally wrong and undemocratic,” it read.

The farmers demanded that the Union government immediately grant the women wrestlers permission to continue their sit-in protest at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar, action be taken against the responsible police officers who treated the women wrestlers so brutally and Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh be arrested and his custodial interrogation be done for speedy filing of charge-sheet and prosecution.