It's Time to Reflect...

What does the wrestlers’ protest tell us about the reality of violence against women in India?

- Kalpana Sharma

IF mainstream media is to be believed, IF the protests by India's award-winning wrestlers demanding action against Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, the president of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI), have fizzled out. The reason being floated around is the late-night meeting on June 3 between the protesting wrestlers and Home Minister Amit Shah, India's second most powerful man.

This is the kind of fake news perfected by some prominent television channels. Although the details of that meeting are still not known, Olympic medallist Sakshi Malik did reiterate that their protest would not end until Singh accused of sexual harassment-is arrested.

That said, after the June 7 meeting with Sports Minister Anurag Thakur, the public phase of the protest has been suspended till June 15. The protestors were either persuaded, or bullied, into returning to their day jobs.

This, of course, suits this government perfectly. Its time-worn strategy to deal with protests that cause discomfort is to ignore them or use brute force to break them up. This was done in 2019-20 against those opposing the Citizenship Amendment Act. It was repeated during the protest by thousands of farmers demanding the withdrawal of the three farm acts. And it has been done now in the case of protesting women wrestlers.