Suspended Wrestling Federation of India will back in power in 10 days: President Sanjay Singh

The suspended Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) will be back in power soon, president Sanjay Singh has claimed as the tussle continues between the sports body and the government of India. The WFI was suspended by the Sports Ministry in December immediately after Sanjay Singh swept the polls to become the new president. Sanjay Singh is a close aide of former president and BJP MP Brij Bhushan Singh Sharan, who has been accused of sexual harassment by many top wrestlers including Olympic medallist Sakshi Malik and World Championship medallist Vinesh Phogat. WFI was suspended for violating its own constitution, National Sports Code and for being in “complete control of former office-bearers”. The Indian Olympic Association has since set up an ad-hoc committee to look into the day-to-day affairs of WFI on the orders from Sports Ministry. President Sanjay Singh, however, is confident that the suspension will be removed in coming 10 days. “We are talking to the government and will convince them their ad hoc committee decision is wrong. Our efforts are on to end this and in 10 days we will be back in power,” Sanjay Singh said in an interview with Indian Express. The tussle between WFI and Sports Ministry has also led to both factions calling for separate wrestling Nationals which will be used to select the athletes who will represent India in Olympic qualifiers. WFI has called for Nationals in Pune from 29 to 31 January 2024, while the ad-hoc committee’s Nationals will be held in Jaipur from 2 February. While most of the big names have decided to skip the Pune Nationals, the lesser-ranked wrestlers are in the Maharashtra city to take part in the competitions despite Sports Ministry already announcing that the medals won at Pune Nationals will be of no value and will not be considered for team selection or government job. The lesser-known wrestlers, however, do not want to take any sides. Sanjay Singh has said that the Indian wrestlers going to Paris Olympics 2024 will be from Pune Nationals. “Our winners come from 25 state units, and there are wrestlers who need jobs and our certificates will help them. Those who are already employed with Railways and Services already have jobs and didn’t need to compete here so they didn’t care. In all this, the ones suffering are wrestlers competing in Pune. But I promise that those who go for the Olympics will be from the Pune Nationals only,” he said. “There are two Olympic qualifying events left. The winners of the Pune Nationals will be called to a camp. Then we’ll conduct trials and send them to the qualifiers. I’m confident 4-5 more wrestlers will qualify. Antim Panghal has already qualified.” With little time to go for Paris Games, Sanjay Singh said that the quota winners will be sent for Olympics in all probability. “Since there’s no time left for trials, those who win quotas only will be sent to the Olympics. But we’ll discuss it again at our Executive Committee.”