IMAGE: Sakshi, Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat, had accused Brij Bhushan of sexually harassing women wrestlers. Photograph: Adnan Abidi/Reuters
Sakshi Malik on Thursday lashed out at BJP for choosing former WFI chief Brij Bhushan Shahran Singh’s son, Karan, as its candidate for the Lok Sabha polls from the Kaiserganj seat in Uttar Pradesh, saying the decision has defeated the country’s daughters.
Top wresters, including Sakshi, Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat, had accused Brij Bhushan of sexually harassing women wrestlers during his tenure as Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief and sat at Jantar Mantar for months demanding his arrest.
Brij Bhushan is the sitting Member of Parliament from Kaiserganj, and his son now getting the Bharatiya Janata Party ticket for the seat has rankled the protesting wrestlers.
In a post on ‘X’ Sakshi wrote, “The daughters of the country lost, Brij Bhushan won.”
The Rio Games bronze medallist Sakshi, who quit wrestling last year, added that the wrestlers’ demand for justice had not been heeded to.
“We all put our careers at stake, slept on the streets for many days in sun and rain. Till date, Brij Bhushan has not been arrested. We were not demanding anything, we were only demanding justice.”
“Leave the arrest, today by giving ticket to his son you have broken the morale of crores of daughters of the country. If the ticket goes to only one family, is the country’s government so weak in front of one man? Only votes are needed in the name of Lord Shri Ram, what about the path shown by him?” she questioned.
During their nearly year-long protest last year, Sakshi, Bajrang and Vinesh had demanded that none of Brij Bhushan’s relatives or close aides should be allowed to contest the WFI elections.
However, the BJP leader’s close aide, Sanjay Singh, was unanimously elected as the new WFI chief last December, which led Sakshi to hurriedly organising a press conference hours after the election results were declared and announcing here retirement from the sport.
Both Bajrang and Vinesh themselves did not write anything on ‘X’ but reposted several comments critical of the BJP move.
