By Sushil Kutty
How many of us were aware of the President of the Wrestling Federation of India before the name resounded in ugly resonance from Jantar Mantar in New Delhi? Hardly any beyond maybe 10 lakhs, 20-30-40-50 lakhs, perhaps one-two crores – the sort of people who vote for candidates in assembly and parliamentary elections regardless of the candidates’ credentials, good or bad – even those with horrible criminal records.
WFI President Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh is the sort of people’s representative who shouldn’t have been elected in the first place. Yet, imagine, he has been frequenting Parliament for years despite a criminal record. He sits in the treasury benches and inhales and exhales the same air that the Prime Minister of India and the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha breathes.
These ‘Gentlemen of Parliament’ sit at a handshake distance of somebody on whose shoulders sit lightly the heavy weight of allegedly some of the foulest deeds that can be committed by a human being. Going by the long list of wrongdoings laid at the door of Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, the gates of Parliament should have been permanently shut on his face.
But, hey, he is one of the several 100 “honourable”, one of the ‘Manniye’, whom we keep watching and hearing in TV debates and at official and private functions where politicians are guests and chief guests. Yes, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh is a friend of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, among others of the same ilk. People who value his august presence, otherwise they would have made it a point to show him the nearest exit.
And he’ll get his place in the new Parliament that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will “gift” to this nation of people who have made it a habit to elect dubious individuals along with gentlemen and ladies to legislative prominence. If reports are to be believed, Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party would never desert Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, surrender him to the law of the land mainly because he happens to be a lawmaker just like Prime Minister Narendra Modi is.
You are known by the company you keep is one of the first lessons mothers and fathers keep drumming into children. So, stay away from “that boy” because he is a “gunda”! But the lesson has been forgotten by Modi and Shah. The disease is contagious. Each and every MP of the ruling party is happy giving company to Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.
Opposition MPs too are as if Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh does not exist. They too have “dumped the medal-winning wrestlers” instead of kicking up a ruckus over the presence of Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh in the august House. Singh’s political clout carries a considerable punch in his neck of woods in Uttar Pradesh is why Prime Minister Narendra Modi does not have any qualms to be seen in the company of this man who allegedly is in the habit of inappropriately touching women wrestlers!
It is an uncalled for criminal fetish; but that is allegedly how the river flows in the Bharatiya Janata Party, the party with a Prime Minister who sits cross-legged and has direct one-on-one powwows with God/Bhagwan/Khuda. That a Prime Minister can do nothing to bring a sexual conundrum to book tells everybody in the building as to who is god almighty and who is just another powerless run of the mill Prime Minister.
So, should we conclude that Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh is God – an untouchable as in powerful? That his loyalty to the BJP is suspect is what keeps both Prime Minister and Home Minister from hauling this MP’s behind over the proverbial coals. This person, say Uttar Pradesh watchers, can make a winning difference in at least five to six Uttar Pradesh Lok Sabha seats which is why Modi and Shah, who have a voracious appetite for MPs, wouldn’t touch him.
Like somebody wrote, “After all, the BJP is dreaming of winning all the 80 UP Lok Sabha seats” in 2024. The Phogats and Sakshi Malik, and Bajrang Punia, are barking up the wrong tree. The offending ‘Tomcat’ cannot be wrestled to the ground from his perch atop. That the President of the Wrestling Federation of India faces a slew of sexual harassment charges is a story lost in translation. And deaf and dumb applies to all MPs irrespective of party affiliation. Vinesh Phogat, Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia – names bounced back and forth – are yesterday’s story.
The public outrage is missing. And the government-controlled media are losing interest if they haven’t already. Social media trends the wrestlers now and then. But demands for Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh’s resignation from the WFI have had an untimely death. Oddly enough the refrain is that because the sport is wrestling only a tough man would be able to run a tight ship. And Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh is the toughest shoulder-striker in Parliament, one with uncommon clout. On Tuesday, May 23, the wrestlers are taking their protest against the WFI President to India Gate even as Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh said he would undergo a narco-analysis if Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia also undergo the test. (IPA Service)
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