The elections were supposed to be a fresh start, the day the Wrestling Federation of India turned a corner, moved on past scandal and controversy. Instead, the turn they have taken is merely a U-turn, and they're right back to where they always were.
On Thursday, Sanjay Singh was elected president of the WFI by a whopping majority (40-7). His first act as newly elected president? To visit the house of his predecessor, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, a sitting Member of Parliament who was forced to resign amid an unprecedented protest by the country's leading wrestlers and who faces charges of assault, stalking and sexual harassment.
Any semblance of moving on from this dystopian situation, of breaking with a tarnished past and trying to carve out a more hopeful future dissolved with an immediacy that was laughably cruel. Standing meekly behind the by now garlanded old chief, the new chief watched on admiringly as Brij Bhushan, whose criminal case is still underway, gave sound-bites extolling democracy and justice.
#WATCH | Newly elected president of the Wrestling Federation of India #SanjaySingh arrives at the residence of former #WFI chief #BrijBhushanSharanSingh
(��: ANI) pic.twitter.com/kTxb7vD22l
- Hindustan Times (@htTweets) December 21, 2023
The blatantness of it all was a gut punch to the wrestlers who had protested - Olympic medalists Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia, multiple World Championships medalist Vinesh Phogat chief amongst them. They had sought that no one associated with Singh hold offices in the WFI and they say this was one of the demands the Sports Ministry had accepted. Now the President, four Vice Presidents and the Treasurer are all from the Brij Bhushan camp. This is not conjecture, or blasé allegation. This is a self-professed fact.
Take this for instance: when asked whether the protesting wrestlers would face any issues over their return to practice, Brij Bhushan took it upon himself to say, "Federation will see the game. It will not look at the mistakes committed in the past by the wrestlers."
You didn't even have to read between the lines: the federation is him. He is the federation.
In a press conference called a few hours after the result was announced, the wrestlers denounced this election. The looks on their faces said it all: the hopelessness, the broken promises, the resignation. Their voices, usually so powerful, seemed to be coming from afar, disembodied.
The authorities can, of course, say that due process was followed; but what is the point of due process if it only results in maintaining a thoroughly messed-up status quo?
Anita Sheoran, Sanjay Singh's opponent, had represented an opportunity, a chance to change. This was a multiple-medal-winning woman wrestler who had been a witness in the Brij Bhushan case, one whose courage and example could have given hope to those who were fighting the system. Hope that the system itself can actually be cleansed. Instead, now we have Vinesh Phogat wondering aloud, "I don't know how to get justice in my own country."
Bajrang Punia couldn't give up hope entirely. You don't become an Olympic champion, a four-time Worlds medalist, an Asian Games gold medalist by doing that... but you could sense the forlornness of it all. "We still believe in the courts. The only place in this country where there is any justice left is the judiciary.... The fight we fought, though, I feel that fight will have to be carried on by one-two generations beyond us too."
"They will have to fight, our future generations," said Sakshi Malik... unable to complete her sentence as tears choked her voice. By the end of the presser, her shoes were on the table. Retirement: the ultimate sacrifice for someone who'd dedicated her life to the sport.
Sakshi Malik leaves her shoes at the press conference venue and says I quit wrestling #wrestling pic.twitter.com/2qPiFW8i6y
- Karishma Singh (@karishmasingh22) December 21, 2023
These are the faces of Indian wrestling, some of India's greatest sportspeople, her greatest champions, and this is their state now. Unable to even form words to express how they are feeling. Their fight - and so much of their hope - snuffed out by the weight of all those garlands around the neck of Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.