Wrestlers’ protest: For Indian sportspeople to feel safe, reforms are urgently needed

“Podium se footpath tak. Aadhi rat khule asmaan ke niche, nyay ki aas may.”

That was what Vinesh Phogat said in a tweet on April 24. “From the podium to the footpath,” said the wrestler with several medals at the World Championships, Commonwealth Games and Asian Games. “In the hope of justice under the open sky at midnight.”

Since April 23, several champion Indian wrestlers have descended from the podiums and the mats to stage a sit-in on the streets of Jantar Mantar in the heart of New Delhi in an attempt to seek a fair hearing. Phogat, Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia are the face of a protest demanding that Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh be removed as president of the Wrestling Federation of India for allegedly sexually abusing several wrestlers. They also want him arrested.

Update: Wrestlers protesting at Jantar Mantar allege they were manhandled by Delhi Police

The wrestlers say they hope to end the culture of unchecked power and subservience that engulfs the Wrestling Federation of India. Adding to the impression of such imperiousness is the fact that Singh is a Bharatiya Janata Party MP.

This is the second time in five months that the wrestlers have taken to the street. They staged...

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