Protest on hold

The professional wrestlers fighting the government have decided to hold their protests for one week. The BJP government has moreover considered the wrestlers' plea and has assured about filing a chargesheet against accused leader Brij Bhushan before June 15. Initially, the protests were deemed political by the BJP top brass as the leaders and Delhi police worked as if in tandem to snub protests on more than one occasion. However, in truth, the protest during its nascent stage was more neutral than anything. When CPM leader Brinda Karat made moves to reach the forefront to speak, the wrestlers denied her stage requesting not to paint the event political. The incident never took BJP by confidence as they still parleyed about the event as a gimmick for ulterior motives. However, when accused WFI chief Brij Bhushan got invited to the new parliament building inauguration event, the wrestlers changed tunes of protest and showed their valiance breaking barricades in a bid to attract media eyes, and they did.

The eye-catching ‘Medal Visarj’ protests meant to drop all the wrestling medals acquired over the years to holy Ganga was also a bid to catch the media lens. However, this time the central government dropped the silence and jumped for ameliorating talks; not for the medal immersing act but the support lent to wrestlers by the farmers union. Farmers from the northern belt are mostly Jats, the caste section that is the decisive voter base for many parties in northern states to reach power. The Haryana election is impending, and Jats are the final word determining the power. The BJP leadership thus got out of the reverie and reached wrestlers for compromise, talks, and whatnot. Now, Minister Anurag Thakur has ensured positive actions to most wrestlers' demands. Wrestling icon Bajrang Punia coming out from the meeting instilled hope and thanked him for the central government’s intrusion.

Among the many, demands was to deny any further term for Brij Bhushan. The UP leader served three terms being chief of WFI and may not continue again and no relatives of Brij Bhushan will compete for the WFI chief spot. The wrestlers also asked for a women leader to be seated in the WFI chief position. The cases against wrestlers need to be closed while demand also called for the immediate arrest of Brij Bhushan. Wrestling icon Bajrang Punia gave a cue about resuming the protests if the central government goes backfoot in any of their promises.