The protesting wrestlers led by Sakshi Malik, Bajrang Punia, and Vinesh Phogat faced a massive setback after former Commonwealth Games Gold medallist Anita Sheoran lost the election for the post of the president of the Wrestling Federations of India (WFI). Sheoran, who was supported by the protesting wrestlers, was defeated by Sanjay Singh, who is close to former president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.
Unhappy with the results of the election, Sakshi Malik has announced that she is retiring from the sport because Sanjay Singh is allegedly a business partner of Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh. She said in a press conference, “If somebody like Sanjay Singh, who is a business partner and friend of Brij Bhushan Singh is elected as the new president, I am quitting wrestling.”
As Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh is a BJP MP, left-liberals are already attacking the BJP over Sanjay Singh becoming the new WFI president. However, ‘fact-checker’ and Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair went ahead, claiming that Sanjay Singh was appointed to the sports body by BJP, and he was not elected.
Quoting an ANI tweet showing Sakshi Malik breaking while exiting the press conference, Md Zubair tweeted, “Tweet like BJP: 60+ crore Indian Women insulted by BJP by appointing Former WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh’s close Aid as the new president of Wrestling Federation of India.”
While he was trying to take on BJP’s claim that the opposition insulted the Jat community by doing a mimicry on Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, he resorted to using false claims in the tweet. Zubair claimed that the BJP appointed Sharan Singh as the new president of Wrestling Federation of India. He said that Sanjay Singh is a close aide of former WFI chief and sexual harassment accused Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, trying to imply that it should disqualify him from the post.
It is obvious that BJP or any political party, or even the government, can’t appoint the WFI president, or any head of any sporting federation in the country. Any interference in running sporting bodies, including the selection of officials, results in the suspension of such a body by the parent global body. In fact, WFI is already suspended by United World Wrestling for not holding the elections on time, and now that suspension is expected to be lifted.
Sanjay Singh has been elected as the new WFI president, he was not ‘appointed’ to the post as alleged by Islamist propagandist Zubair. The election is held as per Model Election Guidelines of the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sport. The details of how elections are conducted as mentioned in the WFI constitution.
As per Article IV of the constitution, All State Wrestling Associations and Union Territory Wrestling Associations are entitled to send 2 Representatives to the General Council. Each Representative have one vote.
Accordingly, the elections for 15 posts of the WFI including the president were held in Delhi on 21st December. Besides president, elections were held for the posts of a senior vice-president, four vice-presidents, a secretary general, a treasurer, two joint secretaries and five executive members.
Out of a total of 47 votes, Sanjay Singh got 40 votes, while Anita Sheoran received only 7 votes. Reportedly, candidates in Brish Bhushan’s camp won 13 out of the 15 positions.
Therefore, it can’t be even claimed that federations in BJP-ruled states voted for Singh, because there are more than 7 states where non-BJP parties are in power. This clearly shows that a majority of the members voted for Singh, while the support for Sheoran, supported by protesting wrestlers, is very low.
However, these facts do not bother ‘fact-checker’ Zubair to claim that Sanjay Singh has been appointed as WFI president by the BJP.
The election of a new president means that the suspension of WFI by the global wrestling body United World Wrestling will be lifted. UWW had suspended WFI for failing to hold elections before the August deadline, and Indians wrestlers have been competing as neutral athletes at international events after that. WFI elections were originally scheduled for July, before the deadline, but it was deferred multiple times due to court cases.
