Our Movement Is Not Over, Says Sakshi Malik

Delhi Police has reportedly registered an FIR against India's Top wrestlers. On Sunday, May 28, the Delhi Police had detained internationally acclaimed award winning wrestlers Vinesh Phogat, Sangeeta Phogat, Olympians Sakshi Malik, and Bajrang Punia and others after intercepting their peaceful march towards the New Parliament Building.

For over a month, the wrestlers have been sitting on a peaceful street protest at Jantar Mantar and demanding that action be taken against Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who they accuse of sexual harassment of many women wrestlers including a minor girl.

The Citizen team was on the ground at Jantar Mantar on Sunday morning when, just a few kilometres away from the New Parliament Building, Delhi Police launched action against and detained scores of protesters from Jantar Mantar, including women wrestlers who had given a call to march to the Parliament. The police action has by now made international news, and distressing images of celebrated women wrestlers and their male colleagues being dragged by the police have flooded all media.

The trained and fit wrestlers, who are at the peak of their careers and have been known to win all hand to hand sports combats, exercised great restraint and did not physically retaliate, say observers. Instead images of Sakshi Malik, Vinesh Phogat, and others being pushed around, dragged on the grounds and forcibly put into buses and driven away for detention tell their own story.

Even after the protesters were whisked away, there remained heavy security deployment at the protest site next to Jantar Mantar. All this when the religious ceremony heavy inauguration festivities were on at the New Parliament. The Primi Minister, is yet to respond to the issued raised by the women protesting against inaction on sexual harassment allegations.

 

Delhi Police crime departments teams moved in after the protesting wrestlers, and activists, had been taken away and then removed the makeshift tents where the wrestlers had spent their nights and days for over a month. The police crime branch were carrying out “investigations” at the protest venues.

Hours after they were detained the women wrestlers were allowed to leave the police station

"They (police) have released me, Sakshi (Malik) and Sangeeta (Phogat). The remaining ones (wrestlers) are still under detention," wrestler Vinesh Phogat said.

They may have faced one of the most harrowing days of their lives, but the sports women say they will not give up just yet. “Our movement is not over… we will resume our Satyagraha at Jantar Mantar… will be the Satyagraha of women wrestlers, not a dictatorship,” Olympian Sakshi Malik’s team posted on Twitter.

“I am feeling sad seeing this.There has to be a better way to deal with this,” posted olympian Neeraj Chopra, one of the few sports celebrities to have spoken out in solidarity.

Also detained were many farmers, and activists who had managed to reach Jantar Mantar to march in solidarity with the wrestlers. Some had come with young children, all of whom were also taken away and ‘detained’, along with veteran human rights activists.

That this police action was launched on the Parliament inauguration day has also been noted widely. “The coronation is over, the 'arrogant king' is crushing the voice of the public on the streets!” posted Congress leader Rahul Gandhi

“This shows that the sceptre was bent on the first day” tweetedTamil Nadu Chief Minister M. K. Stalin commented on the much discussed Sengol that PM Modi carried into the New Parliament.

On the ground at Jantar Mantar, a thick smog of silence had fallen for a while after the hundreds of protesters were detained and taken away. The police, which till then had been aggressive in handling the wrestlers who had begun to march carrying the National Flag, went about doing their investigations, entering the tent and eventually clearing the spot.

“No country in the world would have done this to its Olympians as what is happening inside India,” stated activist Yogita Bhayana.

“The way the Modi government is providing security to Brij Bhushan and their hollow slogan of “Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao” is visible. The government supports those who sexually harass women. If they had put the amount of force they have put into stopping the wrestlers, they had put that in securing the women, this would not have happened. Wrestlers have been sitting here for more than a month and there has been no investigation thereafter,” Rahul, member of Krantikari Yuva Sangathan, told The Citizen on the ground.

“The Modi government has ruined the right to protest and even the media. We have seen the times of Indira Gandhi as well but this tops. This is a protest about women and they are not allowing women to enter the protest. This is outrageous, nothing less,” a protester added as he witnessed the police action unfold.

The police officials while stopping the media from entering the premises said that only those journalists with PIB cards will be allowed to enter. “We will not allow you to enter because we have decided to do so,” a policeman told the gathered journalists who sought entry to be able to report facts.

Many protesters were also stopped from entering the protest site and were divided with barricades. All those who were detained at Najafgarh were released late on Sunday night, many hours after they had been taken there.

Meanwhile Swati Maliwal, Chairperson, Delhi Commission for Women has written to the Delhi Police, seeking the arrest of WFI chief Brij Bhushan Singh

While the wrestlers remain strong in their spirit and desire to continue to seek justice they now face an FIR. According to a report in The Indian Express, the FIR has been registered “against organisers and wrestlers at Jantar Mantar under IPC sections 147 (rioting), 149 (unlawful assembly), 186 (obstructing public servant in duty), 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty), 353 (assault to deter public servant from discharge of his duty and section 3 of PDPP Act at Barakhamba police station.”

 

All photographs Ashish Kumar Kataria and Nikita Jain. Report written by KARUNA JOHN.