Hon’ble Member of Parliament Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh

How much more embarrassment the government wants to face before it decides to withdraw the shield that covers Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president and Bharatiya Janata Party MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh? Does brazenness have no limits in politics?

Here is a man accused of sexually harassing top female wrestlers (one of them when she was minor) who have reportedly won 40 medals for the country. And it took a widely publicized protest in the national capital by some of the most talented wrestlers to get a police case filed against him.

The protesting wrestlers insist on Singh’s arrest. On the day the Government and Bharatiya Janata Party supporters were celebrating the inauguration of the new Parliament building, the protestors were forcibly removed from Jantar Mantar in Delhi. There were allegations of manhandling by the Delhi Police, though the cops justified their action. “The dharna and demonstration of the wrestling wrestlers were going on smoothly at the notified place of Jantar Mantar. Yesterday, the protesters flouted the law in a frenzy despite all requests and requests. Hence, the ongoing dharna has been called off,” a Deputy Commissioner of Police tweeted in Hindi the same day.

This incident cast a shadow on the pomp and pageantry that accompanied the grand inauguration event which was presided over by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It is an open secret that the government is reluctant to act against Singh because he is a political force to reckon with, not only in his own constituency in Uttar Pradesh but also in the adjoining districts. It is realpolitik, pure and simple, shameless and insolent.

Olympic gold medal winners Neeraj Chopra and Abhinav Bindra have supported the wrestlers, as also the heroes of the 1983 cricket world cup winning team (except Roger Binny). World international sporting bodies have supported the wrestlers. They enjoy widespread support and sympathy in the country, but not the BJP’s support.

The BJP’s impudence and effrontery emanate from its belief that general revulsion and media outcry (even in the Godi media) don’t cost them electorally. After all, Union minister Ajay Kumar Mishra was not sacked despite his son Ashish Mishra’s alleged involvement in a 2021 case at Lakhimpur Kheri in UP in which farmers were mowed down by an SUV. The BJP won the Assembly election in the state the next year.

Insolence paid good dividends, so the ‘party with a difference’ didn’t bother about propriety. Ditto with the Singh case; the BJP top brass seems to have decided to brazen out this time also. This despite the fact Singh has the image of a bahubali. He is certainly not the kind of leader Modi’s New India would like to flaunt as an exemplar. Years ago, he was charged with the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act or TADA for on the charge that he sheltered Dawood Ibrahim’s man Subhash Thakur. He spent time in prison, though he was not convicted on this.

In fact, he has never been convicted on any of the dozens of criminal cases has is facing. But then bahubalis rarely get convicted.

The irony and incongruity of the two events—inauguration of the new Parliament and action against the protesting wrestlers—were striking. Prime Minister Modi’s words at the inauguration of the new Parliament were inspirations: “Today, a New India is setting new goals and forging new paths. There is a new enthusiasm and a new zeal. There is a new journey and a new perspective. The direction is new and the vision is new. The resolve is new, the confidence is new.”

Our representatives will conduct business in the new building. Among them will be Hon’ble Member of Parliament Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh will be among them.