Three of India’s most successful wrestlers in a huddle at the banks of the Ganga in Haridwar Tuesday evening, wiping their tears and about to immerse their Olympics, Asian Games and Commonwealth Games medals protesting against alleged sexual harassment is not an image of a confident nation that cares for its finest. Fortunately, well-wishers intervened and persuaded them to rethink their decision. The wrestlers suggested that they will go ahead with their plan if, in the next five days, the government refuses to respond to their demand for action against Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, president of Wrestling Federation of India and BJP MP. Singh faces charges of sexual harassment, including under POCSO provisions. The five-day window is a reprieve for the government: It must not stand on prestige, it needs to reach out to the wrestlers, and convince them that justice will be theirs, that they are the nation’s pride and they aren’t alone.
The wrestlers first flagged their complaint against Singh in January. The authorities were slow and cold in their response. It took the Supreme Court’s intervention for Delhi Police to file the first FIR. The complainants, frustrated at the attempts to wear them out, began a protest at Jantar Mantar in Delhi in the last week of April. Though Opposition leaders, civil society actors and a handful of sportspersons extended solidarity to the protest, the government sat stiff, and silent. Singh, a history-sheeter with a record of being booked under TADA for alleged links with terrorist Dawood Ibrahim, runs an education empire and is politically resourceful. The Modi government and BJP leadership’s response has been: the law is taking its course so what’s the problem. By doing so, they gloss over the fundamental reality of most sexual harassment cases where a person in authority is the accused: Surely, the law will take its course but a clear signal has to be sent upfront, before the legal process starts, that the accused cannot and will not interfere with due process. That’s why the government’s silence is perceived as support for Singh. For his part, Singh’s response to the allegations have ranged from denial to patriarchal condescension and conspiracy theories. His supporters have called for a Jan Chetna Maharally in June, he has even got sadhus to call for a relook at POCSO and its abuse. All this while, no political heavyweight from the government has said a word of comfort or assurance. That a new Parliament was inaugurated with the Prime Minister underlining dignity and justice while the nation’s finest wrestlers were being dragged into police vans doesn’t a good image make. Of a nation that will host the annual session of the International Olympics Committee, where it hopes to pitch for a bid to host the Games. No wonder the IOC has taken note and sent a strong cautionary note.
