Wrestling Federation of India's new plan to get the suspension revoked

The Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) has decided that it does not want to engage in a legal battle with the Indian government. Earlier the WFI’s newly-elected president Sanjay Singh had said that it would take a legal route after the Sports Ministry suspended it on 24 December citing a violation of the National Sports Code and the WFI constitution. Sanjay Singh is a close aide of former head and BJP MP Brij Bhushan Singh who has been accused of sexual harassment by female wrestlers. While suspending WFI, the Sports Ministry had said that the “Newly elected body appears to be in complete control of former office bearers in complete disregard to the Sports Code,” the ministry said. “The business of the Federation is being run from the premises controlled by former office bearers. Which is also alleged premises wherein sexual harassment of the players have been alleged and present the court is hearing the matter.” The Sports Ministry also asked the Indian Olympic Association to form an ad-hoc panel to run the WFI till the suspension was lifted. The WFI has maintained that it neither accepts the suspension nor does it recognise the ad-hoc panel that has been constituted by the IOA to manage the day-to-day affairs of the sport. Sanjay-led WFI’s first reaction was to knock on the doors of the judiciary to get the suspension revoked but it has now changed its mind. Instead, they now want to engage in negotiations to get the suspension lifted. WFI’s new plans “We do not want a clash with the government. We are not moving court as of today. We will seek time from the Ministry and a delegation will try and speak with the government,” Sanjay told news agency PTI after its Executive Council (EC) meeting on Tuesday, which was chaired by the president and attended by 12 other elected members. “First we have to try. We want to know what we need to do to get the suspension lifted. Like UWW had set certain conditions when it had suspended. The ground was not holding elections. The government has suspended us but there is no clarity how it will be lifted. “Earlier also we had written to the ministry but we did not get a reply. We will approach ministry in 2-3 days. A delegation will be formed for the dialogue and I am hopeful that suspension will be lifted before the Nationals in Pune. The ad-hoc panel has announced that it will conduct senior Nationals from February 3 in Jaipur and the age group championships in Gwalior. Sanjay Singh said that state associations have given their commitment to send teams for the Nationals that will be conducted by the WFI in Pune and not the one which the ad-hoc panel has planned to organise in Jaipur. “The WFI Constitution mandates the Federation to host the Nationals and not any ad-hoc panel. A total of 25 state associations have already written to the ministry and the UWW that it will send teams for Nationals to be conducted by WFI.” It has been learnt that many wrestlers selected by state associations through trials have already booked tickets for Pune, where WFI will conduct Nationals from January 29-31. Sanjay Singh contended that Indian wrestling was at a loss because a properly functioning WFI was not in place. “See, we did not have all entries for the Zagreb Open. We had Aman winning a gold medal but no national anthem was played and the tri-colour was not hoisted. The athlete plays for such moments and they can drape themselves in national flag but it did not happen because of the UWW suspension. “So many weight categories went unrepresented and this is not good for wrestlers and Indian wrestling.” The ad-hoc panel had picked the wrestlers who competed at the Hangzhou Asian Games for the Ranking Series event and even those 18 categories did not have all the wrestlers. The event in Croatia had offered medals and ranking points in 30 weight categories, including 12 in non-Olympic weight classes. Secretary General missing Secretary General Prem Chand Lochab and Senior Vice President Devender Kadian skipped WFI’s EC meet. “We had invited all elected members including Prem Chand Lochab for this meeting but he did not turn up. He had said, ‘he will see’,” Sanjay said. New change to WFI constitution The WFI EC also decided to bring about an amendment in its Constitution to make it clear that a two-third majority will be required only if an EC member seeks one more term for the same post. “A lot of people claimed that I was ineligible to contest for the post of WFI President just because I have served as joint secretary. But let me clarify that if I seek a different post then I don’t need a two-third majority, only a simple majority will do. There was confusion and to remove that we discussed the issue. EC has passed it and now it should be cleared in AGM also. We welcome even our rivals. They can come with their suggestions for the betterment of wrestling in the country and we will accept them,” Sanjay said. With agency inputs