Rio Olympics bronze medallist Sakshi Malik has revealed the controversial role of wrestler-turned-politician Babita Phogat in last year's wrestlers' agitation, alleging that Phogat encouraged the protests to position herself as the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president. Malik, a key figure in the protest, stated in a recent interview that Phogat called a meeting with several wrestlers, urging them to speak out against the alleged misconduct of former WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh and others in the federation. “Babita Phogat approached us with the idea of protesting against Brij Bhushan Singh because she had her own agenda — she wanted to become the WFI president.
There are rumors that Congress supported our protest, but that’s false. In fact, two BJP leaders helped us secure permission to protest in Haryana — Babita Phogat and Tirath Rana,” Malik said. Despite Phogat's initiation of the movement, Malik clarified that the wrestlers did not “blindly follow her.
” “It’s not that we blindly followed her; we were aware of serious issues like sexual harassment and molestation within the federation. We believed that having a woman in charge, especially someone like Babita Phogat, who is also a sportsperson, would bring positive change. We trusted that she would understand our struggles.
But we never anticipated that she would play such a big game with us. We thought she would stand with us in the protest and raise her voice against the wrongdoing as a .
