Wrestler Bajrang Punia and other protestors have realised over the last 33 days of their agitation against Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief Brij Bhushan Singh that reality is different from what they had imagined.
"We thought, with all our medals, that we would be heard. But the reality is different," Punia told Hindustan Times.
Despite realising that it is a David versus Goliath battle with the wrestlers as the underdogs, Punia asserted "We know what we are up against, but we are not scared."
When Punia and other stars of the sport like Vinesh Phogat and Sakshi Malik decided to come up with their January sit-in plan, they ran through the worst possible outcomes with care, but how things eventually played out was beyond their scope.
"We knew our careers may end. We knew that post-career options such as coaching or administration may not be available to us. We knew we could be implicated in false cases. But when the cause is genuine and the resolve is strong, there is no room for fear. It wasn’t an easy decision, but once our minds were made, there were no second thoughts," Punia said, adding, "Still, I never envisaged this protest to run so long. We thought since we are international athletes, the government will listen to us. That was the whole point of us risking our careers. It hurts that we have been left in the cold. But we are wrestlers, we won’t go down without a fight. I genuinely feel there are two sets of laws in this country -- one for common people and the other for powerful men like Singh."
Brij Bhushan Singh, the BJP MP from Gonda, has been at the helm of Indian wrestling for 12 years. He now stands accused of sexual harassment and mental torture by wrestlers. Singh, however, denied the charges and while an investigation is underway, the wrestler's primary demand that he be arrested has not been met.
Punia, who would ideally be attempting to defend the Asian Games gold he won in 2018, now finds his training programme in tatters, his sporting ambitions stymied, and his Olympic gold medal dreams at a distance. Instead, he is occupied delivering speeches, handling media, and deliberating with attorneys.
"In a sense, this is our introduction to the real world. As athletes, we live a very privileged, sanitised life. I met a woman here, a sexual harassment survivor, who has been protesting for over a year to get justice. She walked up to me and narrated her story. She said when she looks at our struggle, she finds the strength to fight,” he said, continuing, “I almost broke down. That’s why we say that it is not the fight for wrestlers alone; it is the fight for every woman in this country.”
Singh, meanwhile, has said he is ready to take a polygraph and narco test if Phogat and Punia take it as well.
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