The BJP’s ‘gag order’ against Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh came after the former MP issued several statements targeting Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia for joining the Congress.
Haryana Assembly Elections 2024: The Bharat Janata Party (BJP) has ‘advised’ its former MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh not to speak against star wrestlers Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat who joined the Congress earlier this week ahead of the Haryana Assembly Elections 2024, a media report said Sunday.
A report by India Today, citing sources, said the BJP top brass has asked Singh to refrain from giving statements against Punia and Phogat– the two Olympians, who along with fellow Olympic wrestler Sakshi Malik– were at the forefront of last year’s wrestlers’ protest against the alleged sexual abuse of women wrestlers, including a minor, by the former BJP MP and then Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief.
The party’s ‘gag order’ against Brij Bhushan came after the former MP issued several statements targeting Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia for joining the Congress.
Phogat, Punia’s names will be ‘erased’
On Saturday, a day after Phogat and Punia joined the Congress, Singh claimed that the grand-old party used the two Olympians as “pawns” in a “conspiracy” to take control of the WFI and attack the BJP. He also alleged that former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda was behind the “plot” against him as he had defeated his son Deepender Singh Hooda in the 2012 WFI elections.
The BJP leader also asserted that the name and fame which Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat had earned because of wrestling, will be “erased” because they joined the Congress.
“They (Punia and Phogat) were faces… they were mohrey (pawns). They were used like pawns by (former Haryana chief minister) Bhupinder Hooda, the Congress and the Congress family,” news agency PTI quoted Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh as saying.
“This was all conspired to gain a hold on the Wrestling Federation of India and to attack the BJP and its ideology…This team of Rahul, the Congress keeps doing these things,” he alleged.
Phogat, Punia join Congress
Brij Bhushan’s responses came after star wrestlers Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia officially joined the Congress on Friday, a day after they had meeting with former party chief Rahul Gandhi.
The two athletes joined the Congress in the presence of party general secretary KC Venugopal, spokesperson Pawan Khera and Haryana Congress chief Uday Bhan following a meeting with Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge.
Later that day, Congress announced that Vinesh Phogat would fight the Haryana Assembly polls from the Julana seat. The party also appointed Bajrang Punia as the working chairman of All India Kisan Congress, the party’s farmers’ wing, however, it remains unclear whether will contest the polls.
Talking to reporters after joining the Congress, Vinesh Phogat said she decided to enter the political battlefield as she does not want any other sportsperson to go through what she endured.
“I want to thank the Congress party… It is said that you realise who is with you during difficult times. When we were being dragged on roads, all parties except the BJP stood with us,” she said.
“The pain that we have gone through, we stand with all women who have experienced pain,” she added.
(With inputs from agencies)
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