Several wrestlers are sitting on a dharna at Delhi’s Jantar-Antar alleging that WFI (Wrestling Federation of India) President Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh sexually assaulted women wrestlers. However, now a video of wrestler Vinesh Phogat is going viral, which is 4 and a half years old. In this video from November 2018, she is seen saying that she has not become a victim of ‘Me Too’ and that nothing wrong has happened to her.
It was the time of November 2018, when many women across the world and in India also made allegations while disclosing the incidents of sexual abuse that happened to them. Meanwhile, Vinesh Phogat, who had reached a program, was asked a question regarding this. During this, he had said that such cases can also happen in the sports world, but he has no information about them. He also said that he has not faced harassment in his entire career.
Female wrestler Vinesh Phogat said these things at the ‘Ekamra Sports Literary Festival’ while supporting the ‘Me Too’ campaign. Another big thing she had said was that such cases should not happen in the sport of wrestling with which she is associated. Vinesh Phogat had earlier won medals in the Asian and Commonwealth Games. She had said that women who are sharing their experiences of sexual abuse are brave and sometimes the family stops them from raising such cases for fear of losing reputation.
Question: What are your thoughts on MeToo movement? Has anything happened to you?
Vinesh Phogat: By god’s grace nothing has happened to me. Maybe I’m a wrestler so people are afraid of me.
Date: 9-Nov-2018 pic.twitter.com/f2bVO0t9rp
— BALA (@erbmjha) April 30, 2023
Now when many wrestlers including Vinesh Phogat have alleged that 6-time MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh has been sexually abusing women wrestlers for the last several years, people are sharing this video of him and asking whether he discussed it during that time. Why didn’t you? The wrestlers who made the allegations had invited him to their family functions as well. Leaders like Pappu Yadav, Satyapal Malik, Priyanka Gandhi and Arvind Kejriwal have also reached in support of the wrestlers sitting at Jantar Mantar.
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