It was around 5:30pm on Tuesday, April 25, and Sakshi Malik messaged saying she was ready for the interview. And Sakshi came online just as I logged on to the zoom link. “Bathroom use karne ke liye aayi hoon [I’ve come to use the bathroom],” she said. “Isi liye thoda time hai abhi aur mujhe laga aap se baat kar loon [So I have a little time and I thought I would talk to you]. There are no toilets in Jantar Mantar and because we will be sleeping there again, this is our only option at the moment.”
Here are the best of India’s wrestling fraternity. Two Olympic medallists and a two-time world championship medallist. And they are on the streets protesting. Police have refused to file their FIR despite the charge being sexual harassment. The contents of the committee report haven’t been made public yet. Brij Bhushan Singh Saran, the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president, hasn’t yet received any formal communication, and the grapevine has it that the committee has not found anything adverse against him.
“How can that happen?” thundered Sakshi. “When we testified before the committee, even the members had tears in their eyes. Mary Kom even said to us that she would get us justice. She knows what happened, and was convinced. We don’t understand how she could submit a report, which gives a clean chit to the WFI President.”
Sakshi sounds depressed, and she adds: “There has to be pressure on her.”
So are the committee members scared, and what’s the way forward from here? There are reports that officials of the Sports Authority of India (SAI) have tried to assure them that justice will indeed be served, and they should call off the protest. The ministry has also declared the WFI election conducted on 7 May, 2022 to be null and void, and asked the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) to conduct fresh elections within 45 days.
“All this won’t work this time,” said Sakshi. “Last time, they misled us and we called it off. We were convinced the promises were for real. We were tricked. This time round, we will see it to the end. If that means we stay here for months, we will. The farmers protested for months. We have just been here for three days. We won’t relent come what may.”
She sounded desperate. “If they wanted to disqualify the WFI, why did they wait for three months?” she asked. “All this is lip service, and our only hope is the Supreme Court. The honourable court will hear the matter on Friday, and that’s where we expect to get justice.”
Before I could ask another question, she stopped me in my tracks. “Sir, one thing you need to know,” she said. “The police is supposed to help us. We went to file the FIR on the 21st and there was a minor with us. Seven of us went to the police station to file the complaint and when a minor lodges a complaint, you need to arrest the person concerned.
It’s sad and disappointing to hear we need to give a proof: Sakshi Malik at Trailblazers Conclave
“However, we were told they won’t take the complaint, and that we should come back Monday. Now, it’s Tuesday night. Nothing has been done. On, the contrary the police have leaked the names of all seven of us, and two coaches of the WFI have already gone to the houses of the girls and tried to scare them off. They have been threatened and also offered money to keep their mouths shut. Not taking the FIR is an attempt to give the President time to get his act together.”
Sakshi was particularly animated as she continued. “We don’t care for our careers,” she said. “Our future is uncertain. Now, this is a fight to the finish. We were asked to give proof. Now, we have gone to file the FIR, but we are not being allowed to. Whatever happens, we are not moving from here. We will stay here till our demands are heard. However powerful the President might be, we are convinced the country will listen to us and see our side of the story. And the court will deliver justice.”
Justice or not, we do not know. What proof they have, we do not know. Did Mary Kom agree with them? If she did, why is she silent? What does the report actually say, and why is it that it has not been made public? What’s the future of the sport in India? And how long can the protesting wrestlers carry on?
None of these questions have a definitive answer. But what we can say is that when Olympic champions are forced to sleep on the roads, this isn’t the India we stand for. They deserve better, and so does this country. We have all waited to celebrate them when they have returned with laurels. We have stood up with them when the tricolour has been hoisted as the result of their sweat and tears. Now, they are being forced to defecate in public toilets and urinate in makeshift structures so that people will hear their voices. This is certainly not our idea of India. Right or wrong, we don’t know yet. What we do know is that the world is indeed watching, and watching in shock. This can’t be the country that aims to host the Olympics in 2036.
All eyes will again be on the Supreme Court on Friday. The honourable court resolved the All India Football Federation (AIFF) issue in August 2022. Hopefully, it can do something for wrestling as well.