[ad_1]
The BJP has reportedly passed a ‘gag order’, asking former MP Brij Bhushan Singh to refrain from making additional comments on Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia. The development comes just hours after the former WFI chief accused the ‘Hooda family’ and the Congress of conspiring against him by using the wrestlers – just like the Pandavas staked Draupadi. Singh had created a stir on Saturday by accusing Phogat of ‘cheating’ and insisting that she was being ‘punished by God’.
The BJP has now asked Singh to ensure that he does not stir up any fresh controversy with his remarks on the two, NDTV reported, citing sources.
Talking to reporters on Sunday morning, he said, “Draupadi was put at stake in the gamble that was played in the Mahabharata. The Pandavas lost. Even today the country is not able to accept the reasons for their doing so. The Hooda family…put the honour of daughters and sisters at stake. The coming generation will not forgive them for this and they will always be held guilty for this… Bajrang Punia’s mental condition has deteriorated. He put his wife at stake.”
The senior BJP leader has repeatedly claimed that former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had hatched a conspiracy against him after his son Deepender Singh Hooda lost the WFI elections.
Singh took control of the Wrestling Federation of India in 2012 and had a strong hold on the federation before protests erupted against him last year for allegedly sexually harassing and intimidating female wrestlers. Phogat and Punia, along with fellow Olympian Sakshi Malik, led the movement.
Singh has been vocal in his criticism of the two ever since he joined the Congress on Friday. He had dubbed them the ‘villains of Haryana’ and insisted that the protests against them were politically motivated. He also asserted that Vinesh Phogat had gone to the Olympics by ‘cheating’ and hence whatever happened to her ‘should be her due’.
He said on Saturday, “Who is Bajrang Punia to talk to me? He used his wife for political gains. Vinesh Phogat broke the rules by participating in the trials. The rule is that a player cannot give trials in two weight categories on the same day. She snatched the rights of junior wrestlers by giving wrong trials. She hijacked the entire system. The weight she hid here became the reason for her defeat there (in Paris Olympics).”
(with inputs from agencies)
[ad_2]
