May 28, 2023 was witness to another dark chapter in the 9 years of Modi Government. As secular, constitutional & democratic ethos were sidelined for vulgar display of royalty at new Parliament building inauguration, just few kilometers, away justice seeking wrestlers were trampled under the police boots!
Whole of Delhi was turned into a police barrack as the protesting wrestlers demanding justice against sexual harassment called for 'Mahila Panchayat' at the new Parliament. Not only the wrestlers were brutally assaulted and showed into buses, their tent at Jantar Mantar was destroyed by the police. More than 700 people were detained across Delhi. Com. Sucheta, CCM of CPIML and Com. Neha, Delhi AISA secretary along with several other activists were detained from Janpath (near Jantar Mantar). While being pushed into a bus by the police, Com. Sucheta warned “We will not allow India to be the nation of protectors of rapists!”
CPIML GS Com. Dipankar Bhattacharya condemning the violent police assault on wrestlers and the events the unfolded in the new parliament building said in a statement, “make no mistake. The powers that be now feel completely freed from all constitutional 'encumbrances'. The inauguration of the new Parliament building was turned into a ritualistic coronation of the PM who now considers himself the Master of Parliament. The whole thing marks a new moment of escalation of the assault on democracy and the Constitution. Delhi, Haryana and Western UP just saw the first signs of this escalation in the treatment meted out to the protesting wrestlers and other citizens demanding action against the notorious BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh who stands accused of sexual harassment, even under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.
“The anti-democratic anti-republican face of the Modi regime and the Sangh-BJP brigade now stands starkly exposed. As the mask falls off, India must get ready to stop this new monarchy in the making at the earliest,” Added Com. Dipankar.
Seeing the rising support for the protesting wrestlers, the whole swarm of police force was deployed all over central Delhi, even outside University campuses. The protesting wrestlers and other detained people were released from detention in late evening. According to observers, the police actions show signs of vengeance and complete disregard to the law of the land. Not only the wrestlers brutally assaulted, the detained women protesters were kept inside police station even after sundown, a blatant violation of law.
Protest to Intensify
The joint platforms of women, trade unions and agricultural workers have given the call for action against the injustice faced by the wrestlers and called immediate arrest of Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.
“Agricultural workers' organizations call for protest on 1st June against the police action against complaining wrestlers and demand of arrest of Brij Bhushan. Organizations of agricultural workers condemn the repression by Delhi Police of the protesting wrestlers at Jantar Mantar,” noted a joint statement by AIARLA, AIAWU, BKMU and others.
A joint statement by women’s organisations, including AIPWA noted that “Women's groups call for national protest actions against police brutality on struggling wrestlers and other protestors from 1-3 June, 2023 demanding Immediate arrest of Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, BJP MP, accused of sexual violence in multiple cases, including one under POCSO.”
The women’s groups, while calling for withdrawal of cases filed against struggling wrestlers, also called for swift action against police brutality on women wrestlers who were seeking justice.
The joint platform of trade unions comprising of AICCTU, CITU, AITUC and others, called for nationwide protest on June 1 and noted that the police action on 28th May, 2023, was shocking in the extreme, patently undemocratic, high handed, and obviously on the orders of the Central Government. It is shocking that Brij Bhushan Sharan, the Chairman of the Wrestling Federation of India, who has been accused of sexual harassment by the female wrestlers, one of whom is a minor, is not being touched, in spite of FIRs lodged against him on Supreme Court orders, while those who have complained against him, braving the social stigma it carries in our patriarchal society, are rounded up and are evicted from the struggle spot.
The farmers group Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) have also given call for country-wide protest on June 1 in solidarity with the wrestlers protest. SKM, in an official statement, emphasized the significance of safeguarding the democratic right to protest for Indian wrestlers and all other segments of society.
