Wrestling Federation is essentially Brij Bhushan Family Association

Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, facing allegations of sexual harassment from some of the top wrestlers in the country, ran the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) with a tight grip, said several federation officials who were ousted from WFI because they stood up to him.

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From disaffiliating state units “without following due processes” to putting his family members and close associates in various positions within WFI, the 66-year-old BJP MP from Kaiserganj during his 12-year tenure as federation president had become so powerful that nobody dared question his actions, according to many WFI officials HT spoke to.

Speaking to HT last week, Brij Bhushan said, “You can see what I have done for Indian wrestling. All of you know how well our wrestlers did during my tenure.” India won five Olympic and six World Championship medals during Singh’s three terms.

Bihar gets the boot

The state units though question his governance style. “His was the only voice in the federation. He made his own rules and they had to be followed or else you had to pay a heavy price,” says Kameshwar Singh, a former national-level wrestler and former secretary of Bihar Wrestling Association (BWA). He was also WFI joint secretary for eight years before he was ousted by Singh.

BWA bore the brunt of declining Singh’s demand that his son-in-law Vishal Singh be made its president. Kameshwar said BWA was dissolved in 2018, a new body floated, and Vishal and his close associate Vinay Kumar Singh were made president and secretary respectively. “I resisted his move to take over the Bihar unit. So, citing irregularities during the conduct of the junior nationals in 2016-17 in Patna, WFI derecognised our unit and formed another with his son-in-law as president,” he said.

“Bihar is not alone. He did it to several other states. Vinod Tomar (former WFI joint secretary, now suspended) used to be his man to carry out such actions. WFI elections became a formality and flouting of constitution and election bylaws happened. The minutes of the meeting would be made up as Brij Bhushan wished. He used money and his power to rule.”

Brij Bhushan didn’t respond to calls seeking clarifications on these specific allegations. But former WFI secretary-general VN Prasood, a long-standing official, refuted the allegations and said WFI elections under Singh followed all the rules. “We’ve followed due processes in every election. As far as state units being disaffiliated for misgovernance, we have followed the WFI constitution,” he said.

Tripura, Assam cast out

Wrestling Association of Tripura president Rupak Deb Roy said: “He ran WFI at his whim. He was pushing me to send his son’s name from our association for the 2015 elections, but I refused. When I went for WFI elections, I saw our secretary-general’s name replaced in the electoral list by that of one of his sons.”

When asked about Brij Bhushan’s family members being elected in state units, Prasood said, “If they are genuine candidates, why not?”

Deb Roy added: “From that day, WFI also stopped sending Tripura invitations for national competitions and WFI meetings. We were outcasts, the state’s wrestlers suffered. Tripura has 350 wrestlers, but there is no future for them in the sport.”

“He is so powerful, a ruling party MP, we don’t have the means to fight a case against him.” In his correspondence to the ad hoc committee running wrestling in the country, Deb Roy has accused Brij Bhushan and Prasood of misappropriating funds and sought a CBI probe.

Assam has also not sent teams to the nationals for eight years. Despite having an elected unit, the state has been kept out of WFI since 2015, said Ujjal Baruah, an Assam Wrestling Association official. “We conducted the sub-junior nationals in 2015. We asked for the money WFI received from the government as grant; since it was a preparatory meet for SAF Games, there was additional grant. We spent around ₹15 lakh, but WFI didn’t give us anything. When we demanded, it ticked them off. No notice has been served to us till date, but our participation in national events was stopped. At a tournament in Nandini Nagar, our wrestlers were sent back.

“Brij Bhushan wanted to form a new association in Assam, but we didn’t allow. There are many states – Bihar, Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh – where he tried to dissolve elected bodies and install his relatives for electoral gains,” said Baruah.

On Assam and Tripura, Prasood said officials were holding on to posts for a long time and the WFI constitution was followed. “Assam is allowed to participate through the regional SAI centre.”

Misgovernance card

By his third term, officials say, Brij Bhushan wielded such power he went after the bigger states, wrestling hubs Haryana, Maharashtra and Karnataka.

All three were dissolved in the June 30 executive committee meeting, citing “misgovernance”. The issue was not even on the agenda (a copy of the agenda is with HT).

“He played politics and tried to break the Maharashtra State Wrestling Association (MSWA),” said an official. “He made district units file fake complaints against us and used it to derecognise us. No notice was served, even the complaints were not shown,” the official added.

“MSWA was issued notices and an explanation was sought by a WFI committee, but they did not reply. Action was taken only after that,” Prasood said.

MSWA petitioned the Mumbai high court, which ruled that a parallel association floated by Brij Bhushan was illegal. It said WFI’s actions were “unreasonable” and reinstated MSWA, led by senior politician Sharad Pawar.

The Haryana turmoil

Haryana — the nerve centre of Indian wrestling — also accused Brij Bhushan of trying to gain control of the unit before this year’s WFI election.

“He told me Haryana has not held nationals in recent times and WFI will take disciplinary action. I challenged him. We distribute wrestling mats, give money and gym equipment to akhadas. What has he done in 12 years to develop the game? Even in his own state Uttar Pradesh the situation is worse than it was before his tenure. Wrestling has developed in India because of the hard work of the boys and girls and the parents of Haryana, not because of Brij Bhushan,” Haryana Wrestling Association secretary-general Raj Kumar Hooda said.

“Associations could have complained when they had problems. Why are they coming out now? They never complained to WFI, even to IOA or sports ministry all these years. Why was Haryana association keeping quiet if they felt WFI removed it illegally. We have already conducted fresh elections there,” Prasood said.

Meanwhile, Delhi Police officers said on Sunday that four of the six wrestlers who have accused Brij Bhushan of sexual harassment have submitted audio and visual evidence against him. The wrestlers have agreed to suspend their stir till June 15, awaiting further action.

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