- Saturday, March 01, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
Days after she faced a backlash for criticising the ongoing #MeToo protest against the chief of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI), Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president PT Usha on Wednesday (3) met the protesting wrestlers at Jantar Mantar in Delhi.
The 58-year-old Usha, a former athlete who has represented India in top international competitions such as Olympics and currently a parliamentarian, however, did not speak to the mediapersons who were present on the spot.
Later, protesting wrestler Bajrang Punia said Usha assured the players help.
He also said that the IOA chief said that her remarks were misinterpreted and that she is an athlete before an administrator. Punia said Usha told them that she is with them.
“She said she will try to resolve all our problems and help us get justice,” Punia was quoted as saying by NDTV.
Last month, Usha, who took over as the IOA president last December, criticised the wrestlers for not waiting for a report of a committee that has looked into their allegations before starting the protest.
She also said that the protest amounts to indiscipline.
“The players should not have protested on the streets. They should have at least waited for the report of the committee. What they have done is not good for the game and the country. It is a negative approach,” she said.
The wrestlers reacted strongly to Usha’s remarks saying they were hurt as they expected support from her and that she was not supporting them despite being a woman herself.
Shashi Tharoor, a parliamentarian from Usha’s home state Kerala, also reacted to her remarks saying it did not become her to disparage the justified protests of her fellow sportspersons ‘in the face of repeated & wanton sexual harassment’.
Some of India’s top wrestlers, including Olympic medal-winners, have been protesting at Jantar Mantar in Delhi against Singh, a parliamentarian from the country’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, over allegations of sexual harrassment.
The Delhi Police filed two cases against the WFI chief over the allegations of sexual assault against him. However, the wrestlers did not budge from their protest despite the assurance of police action and demanded Singh’s “immediate arrest”.
