This is the concluding part of the series examining India’s criminal justice system through the synecdoche of Brij Bhushan Singh and the wrestlers’ protests. In this part, the author highlights the air of despondency that will engulf the alleged victims when questions will be raised regarding their silence for ten years and Singh will possibly win a seventh term as a member of Parliament.
—
HAVING read the winds of change prior to 2014, Brij Bhushan Singh mended bridges with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The Indian Olympic Association embellished Brij Bhushan Singh by naming him as the chef de mission of the Indian contingent at the 2018 Asian Games held in Jakarta.
In 2019, Brij Bhushan Singh won a Lok Sabha seat for the BJP from his constituency at Kaisarganj, Uttar Pradesh.
Apart from the alleged charges of molestation and sexual harassment, Brij Bhushan Singh managed to unconsciously achieve a renewed interest in the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI).
Food for thought
For those who relish research, here is a nugget:
Article III of the WFI’s Constitution reads, “The membership of WFI shall be open to the under-mentioned [bodies], subject to the approval of the general council, [namely] the state wrestling associations, Union territory wrestling associations, Services Sports Control Board (SSCB) and Railway Sports Promotion Board (RSPB), United World Wrestling (UWW) bureau members and associate members.”
Despite Brij Bhushan Singh’s questionable antecedents, not only did his membership sail through but also his claim to the coveted chair of the president of WFI raised no alarm bells or heckles with any of the sporting bodies.
Despite Brij Bhushan Singh’s questionable antecedents, not only did his membership sail through but even his claim to the coveted chair of the president of the WFI raised no alarm bells or heckles with any of the sporting bodies.
So how did Brij Bhushan Singh achieve this feat years before the BJP formed the government at the Centre in 2014?
Whilst giving an interview to The Indian Express as the president of the WFI, Brij Bhushan Singh is known to have said, “These [wrestlers] are strong men and women. You need someone strong to control them. Is there anyone stronger than me here?”
But why must we only look only at Brij Bhushan Singh? Take for example, the vice president of the WFI, Hamza Bin Omer, who was, and still is, known as Zafar pehelwan (wrestler) in the bye-lanes of Yakutpura, Hyderabad.
Perhaps, and rather coincidently, a judgment given by the then acting Chief Justice of the Andhra Pradesh High Court, Justice M. Reddy Ramaswamy in Hamza Bin Omer versus Commissioner of Police (1982), makes for an interesting read.
Ironically, another name that is featured in the executive committee of the WFI is that of Karan Bhushan Singh, son of Brij Bhushan Singh, who is serving as the current president of the Uttar Pradesh Wrestling Association.
Grapevine has it that Karan Bhushan Singh might be in the running for the post from which his father just stepped down.
This brings us to a rather uncomfortable question, that of the moral standing and accountability of the alleged victims themselves.
A sprinkle of moral dilemmas
It is a prudent assumption that there is never any smoke without fire. Suppose one were to believe that the said fire (read alleged multiple incidents of molestation) was a norm while Brij Bhushan Singh was at the helm of the WFI.
In that case, it is most unlikely that the present set of protestors, their coaches and support staff, heard and saw nothing.
It is also most unlikely that there were no undercurrents, whispers or murmurs to that effect.
Also read: Court issues summons to Brij Shushan Singh: What comes next?
The question is, why did so many people on the inside (including the alleged victims) look the other way and keep their careers on track to compete at bigger platforms and eventually win sporting laurels?
Let us not forget that the alleged incidents of sexual harassment date from 2012 to 2022, which accounts for a decade-long silence from so many people. Why?
Brij Bhushan Singh would personally chair the wrestlers’ grievance panel in an organisation which, by all accounts, did not even have an internal complaints committee.
Before we go any further, let us first address the elephant in the room and answer a question which every victim of sexual abuse is subjected to, countless times by numerous people. The question being, “Why did you stay quiet for so long and why did you not choose to call out the alleged perpetrator there and then?”
Such questions amongst family, friends, colleagues, neighbours, police, courts and the media are relentless to the extent that by the end of it, the victim starts questioning themselves and wondering whether or not any word, act, omission or commission on their part could have been the proverbial contributory signal seen as a ‘go ahead’ by the perpetrator(s).
An unfair smackdown
To put it in perspective in the present context, who could a victim go to at the WFI? In his 12-year-long reign, Brij Bhushan Singh was the overall president of the federation, and he was also the chief of the selection committee.
He would personally chair the wrestlers’ grievance panel in an organisation which, by all accounts, did not even have an internal complaints committee, as legally mandated by the Prevention of Sexual Harassment Act, 2013. Everyone knew this, but no one (not even the complainant female wrestlers) questioned this arrangement.
Also read: Supreme Court’s directions on enforcement of PoSH Act ring hollow for India’s informal sector
That said, it will be vehemently argued in the court that the protestors and alleged victims, their families, coaches and support staff all seemed to have developed amnesia for over a decade.
It will be pointed out in court that the alleged victims waited for the end of Brij Bhushan Singh’s tenure and only when it was beyond reasonable doubt that he could not contest for a fourth term did the victims, their families, coaches and support staff and their supporters find their voice.
The Delhi police’s initial denial and delay in registering a first information report (FIR) in the case is not something that has happened for the first time. Despite numerous directions and admonishments in this regard by the courts at various levels, the reluctance and rank indifference of the police remains at best dismal and disappointing.
That the present government allowed the wrestlers’s sexual harassment issue to reach such alarming levels to safeguard a member of Parliament will make many reconsider their voting preferences in Delhi and other places.
That the entire protest against the alleged accused turned into a political platform for one-upmanship is shameful, to say the least.
That the present government allowed this issue to reach such alarming levels to safeguard a member of Parliament will make many reconsider their voting preferences in Delhi and other places.
Jantar Mantar no longer hosts the wrestlers’ protest. They took back their agitation once the Union home minister and the Union minister for sports assured them justice, equity and fair play.
The alleged accused ended his three-term reign at the WFI and was given a warm send-off. On the face of it, nothing seems to have upset the apple cart as far as Brij Bhushan Singh is concerned.
What ends are achieved by the slow and arduous wheels of justice still remains to be seen.
The wrestlers’ protest has brought apathy and the ever-willing nexus between crime and politics to the forefront and has also exposed, in more ways than one, the decadent decline of law enforcement agencies.
The protest raises myriad questions on the complicity of the many committee members of the WFI who could have set countless wrongs right but wilfully did not. Questions which the courts, especially the high courts and the Supreme Court must take up on their conscience and deliberate upon.
Reign of glory
In the larger scheme of things, Brij Bhushan Singh may walk away scot-free again or he might find that he has reached the end of his tether with the law. Either way, there is no quick resolution to this.
With the next general elections around the corner, let us not forget the firm hold Brij Bhushan Singh still has on the electorate of Gonda and his present constituency, Kaisarganj.
Singh’s writ runs large in as many as 54 different educational associations he owns or is associated with. Collectively, they boast about 80,000 students.
So, in essence, Brij Bhushan Singh quite literally holds the destiny of 80,000 students from four contiguous districts of Uttar Pradesh in the middle of his palm. He can, and will, use this as leverage.
Apart from this, he owns a wrestling academy, an entire shooting range, and a hotel, so even if a party does not give him a ticket, he can still become a seven-time member of Parliament by contesting as an independent candidate from Gonda.
To add to this merry dance, there are no existing provisions in the law to bar or prohibit an accused in a criminal trial (read sexual harassment) from contesting any election. This is an appalling situation in a country where women form close to 50 percent of the electorate.
Brij Bhushan Singh quite literally holds the destiny of 80,000 students from four neighbouring districts of Uttar Pradesh in the middle of his palm. He can, and will, use this as leverage.
Until the courts take it upon their judicial conscience to bring a shift in the situation and act as the protectors of the Constitution, victims of sexual harassment who suffer at the hands of perpetrators enjoying high offices and political patronage, may only realise and come to accept that justice and access to justice are entirely different things.
