The framing of charges against Singh is, of course, only the first step of the wrestlers’ battle.
Despite repeated invocations of nari shakti, it sometimes seems that this is no country for women. The inertia that for too long met the accusations of sexual harassment against former Wrestling Federation supremo Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh by some of India’s top women athletes last year, pointed to a sobering reality: The road to justice is pockmarked by formidable odds and many give up the fight halfway, bludgeoned into submission by the unequal power equations. Now, however, the framing of charges against Singh under Sections 354 and 354A of the IPC, by a trial court, raises hope that a step forward has been taken. As wrestler Vinesh Phogat wrote in an article in this paper on Sunday, “Today we can stand without fear, our head held high, look him in the eye, the man we were afraid of for so many years. Brij Bhushan has got the message that we are not going anywhere until women wrestlers get justice”.
The framing of charges against Singh is, of course, only the first step of the wrestlers’ battle. The legal fight that lies ahead is likely to be arduous. Singh’s political clout has ensured that the Kaiserganj seat, from where he has represented the BJP five out of the six times he has been elected to the Lok Sabha, remains in the family: His younger son Karan is the candidate this time. But beyond that, it may be an important moment for the global #MeToo movement whose hard-fought gains seem to have lost traction since it took off in 2017. As with actor and comedian Bill Cosby in 2021, the overturning of the sex-crime conviction of Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein by the New York Court of Appeals on a technicality last month was a significant setback. Change, it appeared, would take its time to arrive.
That might well be true. But what gives hope is the persistence of female voices that refuse to be stymied by deterrence, disappointment or intimidation. As with Weinstein’s case, where survivors have affirmed their intention to testify again, in India, too, the women wrestlers have expressed their determination to see the case against Singh through. In France, a secret list of male predators might well become the unlikely curtain raiser at the Cannes Film Festival that is set to begin. If anything, each wave of protesting voices sends out the message that despite its high cost, every tiny dent on entrenched male privilege opens up valuable space in which demands for accountability can be heard and addressed.
