Explained | Why was the WFI suspended by United World Wrestling? Premium

UWW suspends WFI for not conducting elections on time. Wrestlers can compete in UWW events, but not under Indian flag. Protest by wrestlers over sexual harassment, intimidation, financial irregularities & administrative lapse. Election process delayed due to court stays & factions of WFI. To restore athletes' right to compete under Tricolour, elections must be free & fair.

The story so far: In the backdrop of the wrestlers’ protest over various issues, United World Wrestling (UWW), the world governing body for the sport, has provisionally suspended the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) primarily for not conducting its elections on time.

As per the UWW letter to the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) appointed ad-hoc committee, which is running the WFI in the absence of an elected body, “wrestlers and their support personnel (individuals with a high-performance, medical or technical role such as coaches, assistant coach, sport physicians or masseur) remain authorised to participate in all UWW sanctioned events (that is all events on the UWW calendar), however they shall do so under the UWW flag.”

This means that Indian wrestlers cannot compete under the national flag in UWW events, including the World championships in Belgrade in September. No national anthem will be played if an Indian wrestler wins a gold medal.

As some prominent wrestlers — including Olympic medalists Bajrang Punia and Sakshi Malik and World championship medallist Vinesh Phogat — brought allegations of sexual harassment, intimidation, financial irregularities and administrative lapse against the then WFI president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh and others and sat in protest at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar in January, the Union Sports Ministry asked the federation chief to step aside until an M.C. Mary Kom-headed Oversight Committee (OC) completed its enquiry.

After the enquiry, even though the OC report was not made public, the WFI on April 16 announced that its elections, which were due in February, would be held on May 7. The wrestlers then returned to the protest site and demanded the arrest of former WFI president.

They also demanded that Brij Bhushan’s family members should be stopped from contesting the elections. Brij Bhushan himself was not eligible to contest the WFI polls after completing three terms (12 years),

The Ministry halted the polls on April 24 and asked the IOA to form an ad-hoc committee to complete the election process within 45 days. In May, both the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and UWW asked the IOA to conduct the WFI polls within the stipulated time frame. The IOA appointed Justice (retd.) M.M. Kumar as the returning officer for the WFI elections on June 12 after which the polls were scheduled for July 6. Meanwhile, the UWW on July 3, had warned about WFI’s possible suspension.