Gonda (Uttar Pradesh): Taking a dig at ace-wrestler Vinesh Phogat for her entry into politics soon after the Olympics debacle, former BJP MP and ex-chief of Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh on Friday said that the female wrestlers levelling allegations of sexual harassment against him in 2023 was a "conspiracy of the Congress".
His remarks came right after wrestlers Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia joined the Congress on Friday, ahead of the Haryana Assembly polls. Singh also claimed that Congress' five-term MP, Deepender Singh Hooda and leader of the Opposition in the Haryana Legislative Assembly, Bhupinder Singh Hooda have spearheaded this conspiracy.
Singh also alleged that Phogat violated rules by attempting two different weight categories at the Olympics 2024 event. He hinted that her disqualification ahead of the finals was a "result given by god".
"Senior Congress leaders from Haryana - Deepender Singh Hooda and Bhupinder Singh Hooda — are hatching a conspiracy against me. Whatever I had said on day one, I still stand by it. And today, the same thing is being said by the entire country," Singh said on Friday.
He said that Bhupinder Hooda, Deepender Hooda, Bajrang and Vinesh were not protesting to safeguard the dignity and respect of girls. "Due to them, the daughters of Haryana are facing embarrassment. We are not responsible for it, Bhupinder Hooda and Deependra Hooda and these protesters are responsible for it.”
He also launched a scathing attack on Congress leaders who joined the wrestlers' protests allegedly under the guise of seeking justice for the wrestlers.
"There was a conspiracy against me in 1996 as well. At that time, my wife Ketki Singh had become an MP. I was in Tihar Jail those days as part of a conspiracy. After this, there was a conspiracy against me in 2023 as well. Then my younger son Karan Bhushan Singh became an MP in my place," he said.
Singh was arrested under the TADA law in a criminal case in Mumbai in 1996. However, this year, as women wrestlers levelled allegations against him, the BJP did not offer him a ticket from Kaiserganj in the Lok Sabha Elections. Instead, they made his son Karan Bhushan Singh the candidate.
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