Wrestlers shame BJP, and how!

There are five perspectives to the battle between the grapplers and Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh the president of the Wrestling Federation of India WFI and sixtime Lok Sabha MP The first perspective contrasts the partyrsquos refusal to take action against Singh who has been accused of sexual harassment by seven women wrestlers including a minor with its perennial campaign against love jihad in order to protect Hindu women from the lsquolustrsquo and lsquobigotryrsquo of MuslimsHindutva has traditionally deified women as mothers and sisters and favours circumscribing their role to mere conveyer belts of culture It would seem those breaking this mould as the predominantly ruralbased women wrestlers certainly have will not have the BJP strain its sinews to get them justice even when they are sexually exploitedSome hypocrisy thatThe wrestlers have also exposed as hollow the BJPrsquos claim to the moral high ground In a 2022 interview to Lallantop an online portal Singh graphically described how he shot dead a person He did not seem to mind the interviewer calling him a Bahubali or StrongmanExplaining why he joined the Samajwadi Party Singh said the BJP had shifted him in 2004 from Gonda which had twice elected him an MP to Balrampur On the voting day the BJPrsquos Gonda candidate died in a road accident At the sight of Singh who came to Delhi following his victory in Balrampur the outgoing Prime Minister A B Vajpayee exclaimedldquoMarwa diya You got him killedrdquo Hurt Singh jumped ship in 2009Singh told Lallantop about Narendra Modirsquos call to him before the 2014 elections Modi asked ldquoWhat are you doingrdquo Singh replied ldquoAadesh Orderrdquo Modi directed Singh to meet Amit Shah The BJP fielded him from Kaiserganj He won Modirsquos BJP is not allergic to recruiting donsThe politics of polarisation is the third perspective to the wrestlersSingh confrontation The wrestlers leading the protest are Jats from Haryana Singh is a Rajput from Uttar Pradesh Celebrated grappler Bajrang Punia exposed as fraudulent Hindutvarsquos mission of uniting India and Hindus thus ldquoWhen we win medals we arenrsquot from Haryana or a particular community When we protest for our rights we are from Haryana Why this double standardrdquoThis double standard is the BJPrsquos favoured weapon of mobilising people against dissidents The weapon will not lose its sharp edge until citizens particularly sports icons side with social groups other than their own whom the BJP selectively targets isolates and intimidatesThe fourth perspective to the wrestlersrsquo challenge is to study it for grasping the BJPrsquos strategy of tackling protests The wrestlers organised a sitin in Delhi against Singh in the bitter cold of January They called it off with the Union Sports Ministry appointing a sixmember committee to investigate the charges of sexual harassment against the WFI president Since the committeersquos findings were not released the wrestlers returned to the protest siteThe wrestlers want Singh to be arrested under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences POCSO Act given that a minor is among those whom he allegedly preyed upon The BJP applauded Himanta Biswa Sarma the partyrsquos chief minister in Assam when he invoked the POCSO Act to arrest scores of men who married years ago girls below 14 years old But mumrsquos the word on the demand for arresting SinghAlso read Media is supporting Brij Bhushan more than us claim aggrieved wrestlersDilatory tactics were also employed by the BJP to try to stall the 202021 farmer protests against the three laws enacted without consulting them They were first disparaged as Khalistanis Next the government tried to sweettalk them into joining the committee the Supreme Court had constituted for rethinking the three laws They refused believing the committee was packed with members in sync with the governmentrsquos opinionViolence was then fomented on the 2021 Republic Day to shatter the resolve of farmers who persisted with their protest until the government caved in Likewise Muslim protesters against the new citizenship law were demonised and violence engineered to disrupt their agitationThe wrestlersrsquo protest is still at the first stage evident from the Indian Olympic Association President P T Usha slamming them for lsquotarnishingrsquo the countryrsquos image The wrestlers should know that the BJPrsquos decisiveness is about not accepting mistakesmdashand atoning for them A long haul awaits themPerhaps they do know this for as medallist Vinesh Phogat explained they had earlier in January disallowed politicians to come to the protest site fearing that the wrestlers would be seen as ldquotrying to play politicsrdquo But ldquofooledrdquo then they have invited Opposition leaders to support them now Indeed they cannot escape being political which is the only way they can resolve their troubles arising from systemic flawsThe fifth perspective can be had by asking Is Singh so indispensable to the BJP as to have it endure shaming media headlines daily Sure he belongs to the Rajput community the BJPrsquos steadfast supporterBut then there is no Rajput leader in Uttar Pradesh bigger than Chief Minister Adityanath no bigger votecatcher than Modi Perhaps the BJP fears that conceding the wrestlersrsquo demand would make it appear a weakling whom citizens can browbeat into submission shattering the partyrsquos very selfimageThe writer is a senior journalistSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper