Candle march to support protesting wrestlers

Rohtak: Expressing solidarity with the protesting Olympians Sakshi Malik and Vinesh Phogat, several social organizations on Thursday conducted a candle march and demanded the arrest of Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief Brij Bhushan Saran Singh with immediate arrest. Various social organizations assembled at Mansarovar Park in Rohtak at around 6.30pm and after sloganeering,, they conducted a candle march from there.
Jagmati Sangwan, a social activist, said she had been to the protest site at Jantar Mantar in Delhi several times and witnessed how the voice of victim women wrestlers was being suppressed for raising serious issue of sexual harassment. “It has become difficult to reach out to them after Delhi police put up barricades and made them access points, a painful journey for anyone who wants to go and sit with them,” she said.
Expressing shock, Surekha, state president of CITU Haryana, said a call had been given to people to register their protest in support of the protesting sportspersons in Delhi. She said it was shocking to witness that despite the registration of FIR against the WFI chief, who is also BJP MP, Brij Bhushan Saran Singh roamed free and delivered speeches in his favour. "It has not gone down well with the women and it has raised many apprehensions in their minds about the claim of the government to provide safety and security of women at the workplace,” she added. Savita and Rajkumari Dahiya, social activists who also participated in the candle march, said even the FIR against the accused BJP MP could be registered on the interventions of the Supreme Court and he remained a free person despite POCSO Act against him.