As electoral calculations continue to outweigh calls for justice, the substitution of Brij Bhushan with his son comes as mere tokenism, a half-hearted nod to the allegations levelled by the wrestlers.
How many times do victims have to speak up before they get justice?” Vinesh Phogat had asked in an article in this newspaper when the women wrestlers’ protest against the sexual harassment by Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, former Wrestling Federation of India president, had broken out.
With the nomination of Karan, the younger son of Singh, from Kaiserganj in Uttar Pradesh, from where the former WFI head has won three consecutive times between 2009 and 2019, it turns out that even repeated reiterations aren’t enough.
As electoral calculations continue to outweigh calls for justice, the substitution of Brij Bhushan with his son comes as mere tokenism, a half-hearted nod to the allegations levelled by the wrestlers. Given the Centre’s focus on women-led development, its pronounced antipathy towards parivarwad and the Prime Minister’s repeated emphasis on nari shakti, this is particularly ironic.
Singh’s story also illustrates the culture of impunity that keeps men in positions of power from being held accountable. In the year since some of India’s most decorated women athletes waged a lonely war against his transgressions, Brij Bhushan has continued to enjoy political clout. While the case against him is currently being heard, so deeply ingrained has his hold been on India’s wrestling federation that in December, after almost a year of protests, when the federation’s elections were held, it was his aide Sanjay Kumar Singh who assumed office.
In the districts of Gonda, Shravasti, Ayodhya, Balrampur and Bahraich, Brij Bhushan is, by all accounts, a powerful presence. Even before his son’s candidature was announced — reportedly in consultation with him — Brij Bhushan, a six-term MP, of which five have been from the BJP, had already started his electoral campaigns with road shows and meetings. He belongs to the Thakur community, about seven per cent of UP’s population. The decision to keep the candidature within the family appears to be guided by the desire to not alienate a vote bank.
There are images from last year’s protests by women wrestlers that are hard to forget: A teary-eyed Sakshi Malik, winner of the bronze medal at 2016 Olympic, straining to free herself from the stranglehold of police restraint; of Vinesh and Sangeeta Phogat being pinned to the ground before being detained during their march to the new Parliament building. They are representative of the seemingly unassailable wall of male privilege that men such as Singh and JD(S) MP Prajwal Revanna, accused of multiple counts of sexual abuse, enjoy — a wall that women, however successful, still have to breach in their search for justice and equality. At a time when women voters have emerged as a key demographic for political parties, and the women’s reservation bill has guaranteed 33 per cent seats in Lok Sabha and state Assemblies, it is essential to address the patriarchal mindset which views women as beneficiaries and not equals. The ticket to Karan Bhushan Singh is, therefore, a letdown and a moral failure.
