“This parliament belongs to all of us; it belongs to the women of this country, as does their right to demand justice!”

More than 1100 civil society members including activists, academics, lawyers, former civil servants, lawyers etc. have issued a statement condemning the violence unleashed by the government and Delhi police on protesting wrestlers on Sunday (May 28). They have demanded immediate arrest of  BJP leader and Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who stands accused of sexual harassment of women wrestlers. They have also demanded immediate release of all the detained wrestlers and activists.

Full text of the statement along with the list of signatories is published below.

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We, concerned individuals, are absolutely horrified to see the violence unleashed by the government and police today, to suppress the powerful grassroots support for our brave wrestlers and their struggle against Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who stands accused of sexual harassment of women wrestlers stretching back over a decade. The wrestlers have been protesting since 18th of January, 2023. They had given a call to all women’s organisations, activists and all other civil society organisations to join a Mahila Samman Mahapanchayat outside the new parliament building today, i.e 28 May 2023.

Thousands of women from Delhi and nearby states responded to the call. Fearing the collective strength of Indian women – the police pre-emptively blocked all border roads, shut down proximal metro stations, and cordoned off roads. This is how scared a patriarchal State is of the sight of the women of India standing shoulder to shoulder with each other. Despite this crackdown, the government was unable to block the flow of solidarity; activists and concerned citizens found ways of trying to reach the protest site.

But in a rerun of how people’s protests have been stifled in the past few years, many women have been taken into custody and many have been subjected to physical and verbal violence by the police. As we write this statement with fury, we learn that the wrestlers’ tent at Jantar Mantar has been dismantled, and the wrestlers have been taken into custody. Not only has their minimum demand of holding proper inquiries not been met, but they and the thousands from across India, speaking up with them for justice to women, are being treated like criminals; while the actual criminal, Brij Bhushan, remains scot-free. Fittingly for this anti-women regime, this is happening even as a new parliament building is being inaugurated by a Prime Minister whose ‘Beti Bachao’ slogan never rang hollower. This parliament belongs to all of us; it belongs to the women of this country, as does their right to demand justice!

We stand in complete solidarity with the wrestlers, and the people who have been detained.

We demand:

● Immediate arrest of BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh
● Immediate release of the detained wrestlers and activists
● Respect for the right to protest against injustice

PDF of the signatories :

[pdf-embedder url=”https://www.groundxero.in/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Signatories-to-letter-on-wrestlers-protest.pdf” title=”Signatories to letter on wrestlers protest”]