WFI vs Wrestlers' Protest: Bajrang, Vinesh resume mat training, Haryana body suspends top officials

The wrestlers have resumed their training after a pause of 15 days ahead of the Asian Games.

The ongoing wrestlers' protest entered its 16th day on Monday (May 8). Several top wrestlers have been protesting at Jantar Mantar in Delhi since April 23 against the Wrestling Federation of India's (WFI) president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh over sexual harassment charges. The wrestlers have alleged that the WFI president and a Bhartiya Janata Party Member of Praliament (MP) sexually harassed several female wrestlers, including a minor. Delhi Police, after a directive from the Supreme Court, also registered two FIRs against the WFI president on April 28.

However, the wrrstlers have demanded criminal action against Singh for the alleged crime and have asserted that the ongoing wrestlers' protest will only end when the BJP MP is brought to justice. The protesting wrestlers have so far enjoyed the backing of some of the top athletes from the country and several other students, farmers and women's unions.

The wrestlers have also formed two committees that will oversee the protests and help them legally. They also conducted a maha panchayat with several prominent leaders joining and decided to give the government and Delhi police an ultimatum of May 21 before bigger steps are taken.

Let's see what happened on the 16th day of the wrestlers' protest:

Haryana wrestling body suspends officials

Secretaries of three affiliated district units were suspended by the Haryana Amateur Wrestling Association (HAWA) for their alleged involvement in the wrestlers' protest. The wrestling body sees the involvement of three of its secretaries as unethical behaviour.

HAWA president Rohtash Singh suspended the three secretaries, Virender Singh Dalal of Jhajjar, Sanjay Singh Malik of Hisar and Jai Bhagwan of Mewat for violating the regulations of the WFI as well as HAWA. "All three are still continuing their activities with the protesters, which is purely unethical and is against the objectives, rules and regulations of the WFI as well as HAWA," he was quoted as saying by PTI.

However, the general secretary of the HAWA, Rakesh Singh, believes that the suspensions are based on misleading rationales. He claimed, "The circumstances in which they (the three district officials) have been suspended are wrong and misleading."

Wrestlers finally back on mat

The wrestlers' protest had brought an end to the training of the top athletes. While several have stopped their training for the past 15 days and also missed a few ranking tournaments and the continental championships, top wrestlers like Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat have not participated in any tournament since January.

However, they resumed mat training on May 8 (Monda). While still on the streets, the wrestlers said they are doing all they can to manage their training ahead of the upcoming Asian Games.

"The last time we did mat training was a day before the resumption of this protest. And you have seen how busy we were in meeting supporters in the last 15 days. The discussions were happening even late in the night, training was not possible. But now, we will do mat training consistently," one of the protesting wrestlers told the reporters.

"We had light training today as we followed techniques. Gradually, we will start strength and endurance training as well. We are hoping that a proper resolution will come and by that time we want to be ready for the Asian Games trials. We also want to compete in the upcoming Ranking Series tournament," he added.