Indian wrestlers march to call for the arrest and resignation of sports president accused of sexual abuse

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India’s top female wrestlers led a candlelight march of nearly 1,000 protesters in the capital on Tuesday demanding the resignation and arrest of the president of the wrestling federation for allegedly sexually harassing young athletes, one of whom was a minor.

Carrying India’s national flag, they marched to India Gate, a monument close to the country’s parliament building. A strong presence of police accompanied them on the marching route.

The protesters have been staging a protest in the center of New Delhi for nearly a month, amid a brutal heat wave, while foregoing their training schedules. Two Olympics medalists, Bajrang Punia and Sakshi Malik, are part of the protests and have threatened to hand back their medals if no action is taken against Wrestling Federation of India president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.

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The protests have grown with many members of opposition parties and farmer unions taking up the wrestlers’ cause. Most of the Indian wrestlers come from the northern agricultural states of Haryana and Punjab.

They accused Singh, a 66-year-old powerful lawmaker representing the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, of sexually harassing seven young female wrestlers.

Singh has denied the accusations and called the protests “politically motivated” by the opposition Congress party.

India’s top female wrestlers and their supporters protest Wrestling Federation of India President Brijbhushan Sharan Singh in New Delhi, India, on May 23, 2023.  (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

Vinesh Phogat, who has won wrestling medals at the world championships, Commonwealth Games and Asian Games, claimed in January that several coaches have exploited female wrestlers at the behest of the WFI president.

Indian police are investigating the allegations of sexual harassment against Singh, and he has been questioned in the case. India’s Supreme Court has also acknowledged that the case involves “serious allegations of sexual harassment,” but it has been met with silence from the ruling party leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

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After their initial protest in January, Indian Sports Minister Anurag Singh Thakur asked the president of the federation to step aside and help in carrying out the probe. He also said a committee would be set up to investigate the allegations and a report will be released in four weeks.

Singh continues to head the federation and no report has been released in the months since. The women returned to their protest in April and have said they will not move until Singh is arrested.

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“Our fight for justice seems like it has been forever because the wheels of justice have moved very slowly,” Phogat wrote in The Indian Express newspaper Tuesday.

The case has again highlighted the #MeToo movement in India, which picked up pace in 2018 when a spate of actresses and writers flooded social media with allegations of sexual harassment and assault.