‘Lost faith in the committee’: Vinesh Phogat says wrestlers consider approaching court in their fight against WFI president

Two-time world championship medall wrestler Vinesh Phogat said she has ‘lost faith’ in the Oversight Committee established the sports minry to probe the allegations of sexual harassment against Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president and BJP Member of Parliament (Kaiserganj) Brijbhushan Sharan Singh.
Boxing legend MC Mary Kom is the head of the Oversight Committee set up on January 23 with a one-month deadline but its findings have not been made public yet. Kept in the dark about the status of the probe despite the deadline long expired, Vinesh, who alleged women wrestlers were being sexually harassed, said phone calls to sports miner Anurag Thakur and Mary Kom have gone unanswered.
“Why is there secrecy over the findings of the Oversight Committee and the details about how they went about the probe? Women wrestlers have shown the courage to speak about what they faced but it seems like their words don’t matter. We have raised a very sensitive issue which concerns the safety of women wrestlers. We have lost faith in the committee. We received some assurances from the government but they were not fulfilled too. We do not know the status of the report filed the committee as well. Every time we ask what is the status and finding of the Oversight Committee report, there is no response from anyone,” Vinesh told The Indian Express on Sunday.
Approaching court
Though Vinesh and Bajrang tried to reach sports miner Thakur ‘two or three times’ to check about the status of the Oversight Committee’s report, they have had no luck. “We tried to speak to sports miner Anurag Thakur, but there was no response from him. I tried two to three times, Bajrang did too. We tried calling members of the committee, including its head Mary Kom. But she did not take our calls. We don’t know who will give us justice?” Vinesh added.
While Thakur did not respond to calls and messages, Mary could not be reached for comment.
Vinesh and the country’s top wrestlers, including Olympic medall Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia, had alleged in January during their sit-in protest at Jantar Mantar, that the WFI president and certain coaches had been involved in sexual harassment of women wrestlers for years, including at national camps.
If the findings of the Oversight Committee are not made public and if the testimonies of the victims (names redacted) have not been given weightage, Vinesh said she and the other wrestlers could move court.“We are left with no other option but to approach the court in our fight for justice. Stepping back is not an option now,” Vinesh said.
Tournament in Brijbhushan’s stronghold
The Oversight Committee ran the day-to-day affairs of the WFI for a month till the probe was completed and the WFI president stepped aside. However, last week the WFI announced that the Open National Senior Ranking Wrestling Tournament for Women and Greco Roman would be held from April 16 to 18 at Nandini Nagar in Gonda, a stronghold of Brijbhushan, who has a permanent address in the drict.
“Of all the places in India, no other venue was available for a tournament for women? I can give names of possible venues in Punjab, Haryana and Delhi where the tournament could have been conducted. Nandini Nagar in Gonda was chosen despite us saying what all had happened to women wrestlers earlier. How can this even happen? When I saw that the venue of the senior ranking tournament was in Gonda, I did try to reach members of the Oversight Committee. But nobody seems to have any answer,” Vinesh said.
Though Brijbhushan is to have stepped aside, Vinesh alleged that he was still remotely controlling the WFI and taking major decisions.
“He was sidelined just for show, internally he was involved in everything and all the decisions being taken were his. Be it trials or camps or selection of coaches. Whether it was for political reasons or to fool us, we don’t know. We placed our trust in the government. Unfortunately, it feels they (Oversight Committee) haven’t been neutral. The committee is under the sports minry.“
Vinesh also said that whenever she felt certain questions were asked in an insensitive manner to some of the women wrestlers who had come forward and appeared before the committee, she emailed her reservations to members of the Oversight Committee.
The other members of the Oversight Committee are Olympic medall-wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt, former badminton player and Mission Olympic Cell member Trupti Murgunde, former CEO of the Target Olympic Podium Scheme Rajesh Rajagopalan, and former Sports Authority of India executive director (teams) Radhica Sreeman.