Dr. Pradeep Kumar Singh
The matter of renowned wrestlers protesting at Jantar Mantar and adopting other tactics to pressurize the Government to take action against Wrestling Federation President Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh made the headlines in media for almost 5-months. Now it seems to have calmed down after the Delhi Police filed a charge sheet on the matter on June 15. The wrestlers have also indicated to change their strategy for further struggle. Definitely, the active issues have special importance in media, but sometimes the calmed down issues which have become important from administrative and political point of view should also be kept under watch closely.
The wrestlers accused Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh of adopting dictatorial attitude, harassing, slapping a junior wrestler, indecency and sexually harassing women wrestlers. On the other hand, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh called it the reaction of the wrestlers to the administrative reforms in the rules of the Wrestling Federation, and the politics of Haryana. A section of the media and celebrities also put forth their point of view as “the wrestlers have brought laurels to the country, the country is proud of them, they felt compelled to protest at Jantar Mantar instead of practicing in stadium, because of the arrogance, bigotry and political clout of one person.
Definitely, the wrestlers have brought laurels to the country by winning medals. They deserve respect for their contribution to sports. But functioning of the country is governed by the constitution and the law, which ideally do not differentiate between a common man and a celebrity. The administration, the Government and the judiciary should not function under pressure from anyone – complainant or accused, irrespective of their social status. Mere accusation does not make a person a guilty. Punitive action does not take place without investigating the facts and hearing the view point of the accused. The allegations made by the wrestlers may be true. At the same time, the view point of Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh may also be true. During the investigation itself, withdrawal of complaint by the minor woman wrestler has also been reported. The facts found in the investigation and the stand of the court on them will be important.
Definitely, adopting dictatorial attitude and harassing the subordinates by any institution-head cannot be accepted. However, it can be a matter of context and the viewpoints of different parties. For example, an employee who remains absent from duty frequently (without or even with taking leave), badly affects the official work and the work culture. At this, when the competent authority refuses to grant leave, or takes administrative action, he may be accused of adopting dictatorial attitude and harassing the subordinates. This often happens in administrative activities. In the case of wrestlers, only the court can decide matter.
Indecency or slapping someone cannot be called fair at all in a civilized society. The head of the institution should always present a gentle behaviour. The truth in the allegations of the wrestlers and the stand of the court on the matter will be known later. However, it is worth considering that in our country the cases of indecency and beating of Government officials, employees and common people by politicians, their relatives and their supporters are frequently reported. This can be understood from two among many incidents reported in the media. In August-2010, former MP from Muzaffarnagar and his associates beat up a petrol pump worker, and in December-2012, a minister of Uttar Pradesh and his associates beat up railway workers in an AC coach of Howrah-Amritsar Mail. Perhaps such indecent behavior creates headlines in the media, and also yields the status of Bahubali. Political parties do not show interest in controlling it, otherwise there would have definitely been an effective code of conduct for them. Perhaps the indecent behavior makes a person great and improves social status in modern times. Because of this reason growing cases of indecency are observed in society, be it slapping of a cab driver 22-times by a woman in presence of police at Awadh crossing in Lucknow in July-2021, thrashing of Zomato delivery executive boy with sandal by woman in August-2022, slapping of security guards by resident women in housing societies in Noida in September-2022, or thrashing of the food delivery agent by Residents and guards of a housing society over false complaint of 8-year-old girl in Bengaluru in June-2023, and many more such cases. There is need to control this malpractice tendency in the society as a whole.
Sexual harassment is undoubtedly a serious matter, and the perpetrator must be punished. However, the question arises can a person be considered guilty just by making an allegation, due to which the media and the society start passing punitive judgements against the accused. Such allegations have also been leveled against the judges. If the charges do not sustain during the trial for want of evidence, the raising allegations would be great injustice to the accused. The accused suffers loss of face in family and the society. In one of his media interviews, Justice (Retired) Ranjan Gogoi himself expresses his mental agony while giving clarification on the allegations of sexual harassment. He says he would probably take the memory of the painful circumstances facing his family for allegations on sexual harassment to the grave.
The methods of protest adopted by wrestlers cannot be considered appropriate for a healthy democracy. Being the Government (salaried) employee, violating the service-conditions (conduct rules), protesting for months, they kept criticizing the Government in the media, and kept providing platform to political parties, farmers’ organizations and Khap Panchayats to support them. Not only this, some wrestlers openly supported the farmer’s agitation on the sale of sunflower seeds crop. Such conduct presents a wrong message to the youth, who consider the wrestlers their role model. These wrestlers, evolved and developed with the Government money collected from tax payers, instead of displaying gratitude towards the country, decided to immerse the medals won for the country in the Gangaji at Hardwar, and invited intervention of the leaders of farmers’ union, who earlier blocked the highways and held the national capital hostage for more than one-year in year 2020-21 for protest against the agricultural reforms laws enacted by the Parliament.
The interference of some political parties, farmers’ organizations and Khap Panchayats in the entire dispute is not only astonishing, but also beyond comprehension. All of them support the agitating wrestlers to protect the dignity and respect of women wrestlers, as if their conscience has got awakened for the respect towards the women. However, it is important to note that many heart-wrenching incidents of destruction of women’s dignity, respect and security have come to light in past few years on which they have been observed to close their ears-eyes-mouth. In October-2020, 21-year-old student Nikita Tomar was murdered in broad daylight by two Muslim youths in Ballabhgarh (Faridabad). In June-2022, former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma was reported to receive threats for rape and murder from Muslim fundamentalists for her comment in a TV-debate. The celebrities and organizations supporting the wrestlers did not consider it appropriate to take cognizance of these incidents. It seems that some political parties and social organizations remain ready to extend their support to any agitation so as to remain in the headlines of media for social survival and thus to improve political power. Society should be wary of such political parties and social organizations. Wrestlers who made the country proud by winning medals appear to have disappointed the country by taking support of these organizations in the struggle for justice and self-respect.
(The author is Professor & Former Dean (Research & Consultancy) Sant Longowal Institute of Engineering & Technology, Longowal)
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