In what appears to be a desperate attempt to save face and damage control, the official Twitter handle of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) put out a video featuring two women wrestlers, who dismissed the allegations of sexual harassment against Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, the President of the WFI, as “baseless”.
In the 30-second video tweeted by WFI on Friday, January 20, the two wrestlers introduced themselves as Kanak Kushwaha and Kajal Kushwaha, state wrestlers from Madhya Pradesh, attached to the Akhada Training School in Bhopal. The duo, in what looks like a scripted school annual day play, goes on to say, “All the allegations being leveled against the WFI president are baseless. We've been wrestling for many years, but to date, nothing wrong has ever happened with any girl. We strongly condemn these baseless allegations. We join our hands to plead that you also strongly condemn these baseless allegations”.
However, several Twitter users responded to the video calling WFI out for putting out a ‘scripted video’, with several of them also terming the video as ‘cringe’. One of them said that those who initially supported the WFI on the issue would now start doubting the federation after viewing this video.
This rehearsed script doesn't help!
— Digvijay Singh Deo (@DiggySinghDeo) January 20, 2023
— Bilal Hussain (@ibilalhusain) January 20, 2023
Those who support the federation will start having doubts after seeing this video!
so funny, never seen more funny thing than this, scripted
— Bikash Chand Katoch (@BikashCkatoch) January 20, 2023
Script acha tha lekin acting thoda sikna padega…Agle baar se thik kar lena
— (@Spiidey__) January 21, 2023
The video was tweeted just moments before Sharan Singh was asked to step aside from the post of president following a three-day-long protest by some of the most celebrated wrestlers of the country including World Championship medalists Vinesh Phogat, Deepak Punia, and Olympic stars Ravi Dahiya, Bajrang Punia, and Sakshi Malik. The protests have been temporarily called off following assurance from the government to adequately address them, the first step of which was temporarily asking the under-fire chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh to step down.
The government has also decided to form an oversight committee that will investigate the allegations of sexual harassment by women wrestlers against the president. The committee, members of which are yet to be named, will also oversee the day-to-day affairs of the federation.
Watch video:
— Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) (@wfi_wrestling) January 20, 2023
