Wrestling Federation of India President and BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh in a police interrogation on May 6 called the allegations against him that he touched female wrestlers’ stomach and breasts on the pretext of checking their breathing as “false and baseless”. Similarly in his appearance before the government-appointed Oversight Committee on February 28, he denied all allegations, The Indian Express reported.
What did Singh tell the Oversight Committee?
A 24-page transcript of Singh’s deposition shows that during the panel hearing, a wrestler said that Singh touched her “stomach and chest 3-4 times and continued to comment on her breathing pattern”. Singh denied the wrestler’s complaint and said he touched his own stomach to show her the correct way of breathing.
The deposition is a part of the oversight committee’s report, which is mentioned in the Delhi police charge sheet.
He told the committee that during a tournament he, along with another wrestler and a coach, saw the complainant making wrong choices during a bout. They finally concluded that her breathing pattern was reversed. He further told the Mary Kom-led committee that he had been a victim of reverse breathing pattern for a long time after his son died by suicide and found “refuge in yoga”. “I was told that since my breathing pattern is reverse, I am unable to sleep,” he added.
In order to show the wrestler and the coach the meaning of reverse breathing pattern, Singh said he placed his hand on his stomach and showed them exactly what it was. Following this everyone places their hands on their stomach and checked their breathing. “When the complainant [name withheld] came, I told her, ‘beta, you should join yoga as well’,” he added.
Singh later concluded that it would be tough for the wrestler to win a medal as she was not serious. She had laughed when Singh asked her to check her breathing while sleeping. He had also questioned a physiotherapist if she massaged the complainant’s hands 2-3 times a day.
Singh on having separate camps for male and female wrestlers
The panel also questioned Singh on the federation’s decision to have separate camps for male and female wrestlers and conduct the women’s national camp at the Sports Authority of India’s Lucknow centre.
The former physiotherapist of a woman wrestler who was at the camp in 2014 Paramjeet Malik that a car used to come around 10 or 11 in the night and some junior wrestlers were taken out of the camp. However, her name was struck off from the camp after she brought the matter to the notice of the chief coach.
Responding to questions on separate camps, Singh said in his experience the camps of men and women should not be held at the same venue. He said he just told the authorities to have separate camps as it would impact their training. “Even the parents of the wrestlers told me to split the two camps,” he added.
The panel asked Singh why the players’ opinion should not be taken into consideration on the matter as both genders train together in akharas and in foreign. In his response, Brij said, “Why don’t brothers and sisters sleep together? Why do we have women’s universities, women’s colleges? Our scriptures say that brothers and sisters should not stay alone together. Now that we have said this, it has triggered a debate.”
Besides all this, he was also asked why the federation did not have a complaints committee to deal withy sexual harassment cases as directed by the government. “Till date, not even one child has come with a complaint,” he said. He added that if the federation knew about such a rule, they would have had such a committee.