Wrestlers suspend stir

OVER FOUR months after aggrieved wrestlers, led by international medallists Bajrang Punia, Sakshi Malik and Vinesh Phogat, began a protest seeking the arrest of WFI president and BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh on the charge of sexual harassment of women grapplers, including a minor, the logjam over the contentious issue seems to have been broken. Following their meeting with Union Sports Minister Anurag Thakur on Wednesday, the wrestlers decided to suspend their stir till June 15 after he assured them that the chargesheet would be filed by then. Implicit in this assurance is the hope that if the charges against Brij Bhushan stick — and the complainants are convinced that they would — the WFI chief would be arrested shortly thereafter. Significantly, the grapplers have also extracted from Thakur four other promises aimed at ensuring the safety of women athletes.

Unfortunately, going by the legal track record, the sports arena in our country is riddled with predatory coaches and other officials taking advantage of their power and position to exploit budding players. The reformatory guidelines arising from this agitation must be applied across the board in a bid to provide a safe and secure playing field to all sportswomen.

In fact, this softening of stands would have happened much earlier had the government offered the olive branch sooner rather than staying a mute spectator to the protest. The star wrestlers felt humiliated after being manhandled and booked by the police when they tried to march towards the new Parliament building during its inauguration. The stir attracted global flak when the frustrated wrestlers decided to throw their medals into the Ganga, even as khaps and farmers stepped in to back them. Hopefully, they will get justice soon and not be forced to resume their protest.