Top BJP Leaders Put Weight Behind Narsingh to Push Sushil Out

Before a Delhi High Court decisionfrustrated star Indian wrestler Sushil Kumar's hopes of taking part in the 2016Rio Olympics, several senior BJP leaders turned down his fervent appeals for aspecial trial against Narsingh Yadav, that would have settled which of the two wouldrepresent India in the 74 kg category in Brazil.

Feeling slighted bythe affront from the BJP leaders, including Home Minister Rajnath Singh and thethen Union Sports Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, among others, a humiliatedSushil Kumar is now contemplating retiring from all forms of the sport.

Political Kushti

Sushil won a bronze and a silver medal inthe 2008 and 2012 Olympics, respectively, in the 66 kg category. He won agold medal in the 74 kg category at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games in 2014.

Besides Rajnath and Sonowal, Sushil Kumar was up against a powerful Maharashtra BJP leaders' lobby, including Road Transport and Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis who, Wrestling Federation of India sources disclosed, applied pressure on WFI President and BJP MP from UP Brijbhushan Sharan Singh to not consider Sushil's bid for the Rio Olympics.

Sushil's desperate attempt to reach out toPrime Minister Narendra Modi also failed when the PMO dilly-dallied on grantinghim an appointment. In a meeting between Sushil's father-in-law Satpal Singh,who is said to be close to the Congress, and Rajnath, the latter is learnt tohave said that he was not in a position to help.

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The Maharashtra Link

A month or so before a harrowed Sushil draggedthe WFI to court, Brijbhushan, who is the BJP MP from Gonda in UP, and is saidto be from a wrestling background, took the unilateral decision to cancel thespecial trial between Sushil and Narsingh (originally from UP but a resident ofJogeshwari in Mumbai) scheduled sometime in May.

WFI sources said that behind the“politics” that put paid to Sushil's dreams of going to Rio was the hand of VenodSharma, iTV channel proprietor from Haryana with political ambitions. InDecember 2015, when the Pro-Wrestling League (PWL) was launched under thestewardship of Sharma and his son Kartikeya, who owns Pro Sportify. The personwho worked closely with Sharma to make the Pro-Wrestling League a reality is DrManju Sachdeva, mooh-boli (informallyadopted) daughter of senior BJP leader and former Union minister Murli ManoharJoshi.

Representing the WFI, Brijbhushan sold allrights on private wrestling events, including the league, for Rs 50 lakh to ProSportify. When plans were afoot to launch the league, Brijbhushan wanted Sushilto be the “face of PWL”. On his part, Sushil wanted an “exclusive” relationshipand accordingly negotiated the terms and conditions with the WFI.

The auctions took place when Sushil leftfor Georgia, in the Russian Federation, for training in November 2015. The sixteams were the Bengaluru Yoddhas (owned by Sajjan Jindal), Uttar PradeshWarriors, Haryana Hammers (Kartikeya Sharma), Punjab Royals, Revanat MumbaiGaruda and Dilli Veers. UP Warriors picked up Sushil for Rs 38.2 lakh butYogeshwar Dutt, who had won gold at the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games, pippedSushil to be grabbed for Rs 39.3 by the Haryana Hammers.

When this upset Sushil, the WFI sought toplacate him by suggesting that the UP Warriors pay him an additional Rs 11lakh. Claiming that he had been “slighted and not respected”, Sushil pulled outof the league. The WFI, however, continued to pay a Rs 75 lakh annual grant forhis training for the upcoming Olympics competition.

Flawed Quota System

While sources close to Sushil claim thathe was not nursing a shoulder injury and was physically fit, a section of WFIofficials said that the main ground for his pulling out of the league was hisfear that the injury would get aggravated a few months before the Olympics.Nevertheless, Sushil's decision to withdraw from the league embarrassed bothVenod Sharma and Brijbhushan.

After the 66 kg category, in which Sushilfought, was abolished in 2013, a new category – 65 kg – was created and whichHaryana's Yogeshwar Dutt took to. But Narsingh, who at that point in time hadwon gold in the 2012 Asian Games and the Delhi Commonwealth Games, was in the74 kg category. The WFI decided to “sideline” Narsingh and Sushil was allowedto take part for India in the 2014 Glasgow CWG where he won gold.

After Glasgow Sushil took the decision tostick to the 74 kg category and was given a Rs 75 lakh centralgrant that would go towards training for the 2016 Olympics. In the 2015 WorldWrestling Championship in Las Vegas, Narsingh won bronze and was set to takepart in the 2016 Olympics. Sushil did not take part because he was nursing ashoulder injury.

The WFI, which, unlike other Indian sportsbodies, does not have well-laid-out rules on trials insisted that it would holdtrials to decide whether Sushil or Narsingh would make it to Rio under thequota system.

WFI Sources said that Narsingh, who wasbacked by a section of BJP leaders, refused to compete with Sushil who hadinsisted on a trial to decide whether he or his wrestling colleague would go toRio. It was Sushil's contention that a place on the Indian team belongs to thecountry rather than an individual.

Also read:
Sushil Kumar Deserved a Trial, Write His Lawyers For The Quint

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