BJP Top Brass ‘Advises’ Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh Not To Speak Against Vinesh Phogat, Bajrang Punia: Report

Haryana Assembly Elections 2024: The Bharat Janata Birthday party (BJP) has ‘advised’ its former MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh no longer to speak against big name wrestlers Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat who joined the Congress earlier this week beforehand of the Haryana Assembly Elections 2024, a media report said Sunday.

A report by India Nowadays, citing sources, said the BJP top brass has asked Singh to refrain from giving statements against Punia and Phogat– the two Olympians, who together with fellow Olympic wrestler Sakshi Malik– were at the forefront of last year’s wrestlers’ protest against the alleged sexual abuse of girls wrestlers, including a minor, by the former BJP MP after which Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief.

The party’s ‘gag order’ against Brij Bhushan came after the former MP issued several statements occupied with Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia for joining the Congress.

Phogat, Punia’s names may 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 keep watch over of the WFI and attack the BJP. He also alleged that former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda became at the back of the “plot” against him as he had defeated his son Deepender Singh Hooda the full way during the 2012 WFI elections.

The BJP leader also asserted that the name and fame which Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat had earned on account of wrestling, may 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 became all conspired to achieve 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 items,” he alleged.

Phogat, Punia join Congress

Brij Bhushan’s responses came after big name wrestlers Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia officially joined the Congress on Friday, a day after they'd meeting with former party chief Rahul Gandhi.

The two athletes joined the Congress the full way during 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 because the working chairman of All India Kisan Congress, the party’s farmers’ wing, alternatively, it's still unclear whether will contest the polls.

Talking to reporters after joining the Congress, Vinesh Phogat said she made up our minds to enter the political battlefield as she does no longer want every other sportsperson to undergo what she endured.

“I prefer to thank the Congress party… It's a prolonged way said that you just realise who is with you right through demanding times. Once we were being dragged on roads, all parties in place of the BJP stood with us,” she said.

“The pain that now we have passed through, we stand with all females who have experienced pain,” she added.

(With inputs from agencies)