NEW DELHI: Alleging the government of turning "deaf and blind" to their movement, India's leading female wrestlers and Olympians, Vinesh Phogat and Sakshee Malikkh – at the forefront of the fight against Wrestling Federation of India's (WFI) sidelined president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh – on Sunday implored the women member of parliaments (MPs) from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to join their protest at Jantar Mantar here and provide them justice.
Holding a press conference at the protest site, both Vinesh and Sakshee, who along with Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist Bajrang Punia, are demanding the arrest of Singh – a BJP-strongman and six-time Lok Sabha MP from Uttar Pradesh – on charges of sexually harassing the seven women wrestlers, including a minor, informed that they will be sending hand-written letters as well as emails to women MPs from BJP from Monday onwards to press for their demand for justice. The two showed an identical letter written separately to union finance minister and BJP's Rajya Sabha MP from Karnataka, Nirmala Sitharaman, and union minister for women and child development and minority affairs and Lok Sabha MP from Amethi constituency, Smriti Zubin Irani. The letter has been written to all 43 women MPs of BJP. The wrestlers' protest entered its 22nd day on Sunday.
"It's been 22 days since we started the sit-in and, so far, no female MP from the ruling BJP has come to meet or support us in our battle. So, we have decided to send hand-written letters as well as emails to women MPs from BJP imploring them to join us in our fight for justice," said reigning Asian Games and CWG champion Vinesh.
"Your party talks about beti padhao, beti bachao. We are also India's daughters and we are fighting for our dignity. Our friends in the wrestling community will hand deliver the letters to their homes and we will also write them an email. Probably, our voice is not reaching women MPs, so we thought of reaching out to them. This is a battle for every girl who is fighting for justice," she added.
In the letter, which has been written under the banner of 'Wrestlers Sangharsh Samiti, Jantar Mantar', the agitating grapplers wrote: "We women wrestlers of India have been sexually assaulted by the president of the WFI. During his long period of presidency, the wrestlers were sexually assaulted many times by him. Sometimes, the wrestlers tried to raise their voice but his power ruined the wrestlers' future and forgot about justice. Now as the water rises above the nose (much water has flown under the bridge), we have been left with no other way but to fight for the dignity of women wrestlers. We have left our life and sports aside and decided to fight for our dignity. We have been fighting for justice for the last 20 days at Jantar Mantar. As per our observation, his power has not only broken the back bone of administration but also made our government deaf and blind. Being a woman member of parliament of the ruling party, we have lots of hope from you and request you to help us. Please become our voice for justice and save our dignity. We also hope that you can spare some time to reach Jantar Mantar to guide us." The letter addressed separately to Sitharaman and Irani was jointly signed by Vinesh and Sakshee.
Meanwhile, Bajrang welcomed the Indian Olympic Association's (IOA) decision to let an ad-hoc committee take full control of the federation and termed it as a 'big step' towards victory for wrestlers. "It's our first victory in the battle for justice. The entire federation has been disbanded which marks a great beginning for us. Our struggle will go on till we get justice," he said. On Friday, the IOA had asked the federation's secretary general to hand over the official documents including financial instruments to its ad-hoc panel, making it clear the outgoing office bearers shall have no role in the running of the WFI.
