CHENNAI: The tussle between the sports ministry and Wrestling Federation of India is in the open. A day after the sports minister announced that an oversight committee will be formed to look into the allegations of the protesting wrestlers, Vinod Tomar, WFI’ sassistant secretary has been suspended.
An employee of the sports ministry, he was engaged with the federation since 2002. Salary of Tomar was being reimbursed to the WFI by the Sports Authority of India (SAI) from the funds allocated under the scheme of assistance to the national sports federations.
This comes after the WFI had sent a reply to ministry refuting all charges levelled against it and its president. Renowned wrestlers from the country including Olympic medallists Bajrang Punia and Sakshi Malik, multiple World Championships medallist Vinesh Phogat staged a three-day protest at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi demanding removal of WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh accusing him of sexual harassment and misappropriation of funds. They eventually called off their protest late on Friday night after sports minister Anurag Thakur assured them to redress their grievances by constituting a committee to probe the charges. “The Ministry has taken note of the reports about the functioning of the WFI, including the role of Shri Vinod Tomar and, has the reasons to believe that his continued presence will be detrimental to the development of this High Priority Discipline,” reads the letter issued on Saturday.
“Therefore, in terms of the provisions of the Sports Code 2011 (Annexure-IX) as contained in Ministry’s Circular No. 1-27/86-D. I (SP) dated 3.9.1988 (para 2.7, 3.2 and 4), the Ministry has decided to suspend Shri Vinod Tomar, Assistant Secretary, WFI forthwith, and accordingly, the Sports Authority of India is directed to convey this decision to WFI immediately,” says the letter.
Suspense over meeting
The ministry on Saturday also directed the federation to immediately cancel all its activities including the ongoing Open National Ranking Tournament in Gonda, Uttar Pradesh. Abiding by the directive, the event has been cancelled. However, there is no clarity on whether the proposed meeting called on Sunday to discuss the allegations against Singh will be held or not. “We will speak to our members in the morning and take legal opinion if needed before going ahead with the meeting,” said VN Prasood, WFI secretary-general. It would also be interesting to see if Singh attends the meeting if the same happens.
NSF rejects allegations
According to the reply available with this newspaper, WFI rejected claims of mismanagement and sexual harassment levelled against Singh. The WFI maintained that its policies are transparent and are available on the website. The reply said that the wrestlers were acting under “vested interest”.
It said that “hence, the media protesters may not be taken seriously, who have evidently acted more in personal interest or under undue pressure or under any larger bigger conspiracy to malign and defame the present sitting management of the WFI or President, WFI for vested interest only, for which the protesters wrestlers are accountable to explain for themselves, to the public as well as the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Department of Sports, Govt. of India particularly when mostly the protestors evidently are seen coming together from a particulars region/State of Haryana.”
The WFI also rejected allegations of sexual harassment saying that no such complaints were received by the internal complaints committee in which Sakshi is one of the five members. “Any aggrieved person/wrestler may approach the said committee for its grievances if any, which committee is bound to inquire as per law. However, no such complaint of any such nature as has been aired by the protestors/wrestlers has been received so far,” said WFI.“The manner and method of protestors/wrestlers to air their allegation by sitting at Dharna and also dong Press Conference certainly is part of deeper and larger conspiracy for vested interest...”
Ministry to name panel on Sunday
The Sports Ministry will announce the names of its oversight committee members, who will probe the allegations of sexual harassment and corruption against Wrestling Federation of India president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, on Sunday, ministry sources said.