Mumbai: A day after his party called the suspension of the newly-elected Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) a ‘farce,’ NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Monday welcomed the union sports ministry’s decision, but said it should have been taken earlier.
“The sports ministry has delayed the decision to suspend the WFI. It should have been taken earlier. There was a complaint about misconduct towards women wrestlers, who brought laurels to the country,” Pawar said in Pune.
A decision should have been taken against such elements long back. Although it is delayed, I welcome the decision, he added.
Pawar’s remarks have come after the Sports Ministry on Sunday suspended the WFI, three days after it elected new office bearers, for not following the provisions of its constitution while taking decisions. The ministry asked the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) to constitute an ad-hoc panel to manage the affairs of the sports body.
The NCP on Sunday had termed the suspension of the WFI as a ‘farce,’ saying that by taking such a decision the ruling BJP cannot absolve itself from the accusation of not helping women wrestlers.
On social media platform X, the Sharad Pawar-led NCP’s national spokesperson Clyde Crasto had said, “If this can be done, then why did they allow elections to be conducted?”
“By suspending the committee if the BJP-led ministry thinks they are absolving themselves from not helping the women wrestlers, they are mistaken,” he added.
The WFI elections were held on December 21 with former president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh's loyalist, Sanjay Singh, and his panel winning the polls by big margins.
Several top wrestlers, including Olympic medallists Bajrang Punia and Sakshi Malik and World Championship medallist Vinesh Phogat have levelled allegations of sexual harassment against Brij Bhushan. After Sanjay Singh was elected as the WFI president, Malik announced her retirement from the sport, while Punia returned his Padma Shri medallion to the government.
