For four months, four weeks and one day, their laser-focus protest had one demand: The ouster of their federation boss on charges of sexual harassment. In April 2023 when a government appointed oversight committee headed by boxer Mary Kom fell short, India’s most decorated wrestlers, including Vinesh Phogat, Bajrang Punia and Sakshi Malik pitched their tents on the street.

Just down the street from the protest site where he lived, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh showed no sign of being disturbed let alone dislodged. The wrestlers then said they would march to the new Parliament building on the day it was being inaugurated. Instead, Delhi police dragged them on the street, pushed them into buses and removed them from public view.

When they threatened to dump their medals into the Ganga, a hasty patch-up was brokered by the powerful farmer’s union.

Under Supreme Court orders, Delhi police had to file criminal charges. But the most egregious of them by a minor that would have been tried under India’s strict Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) was mysteriously withdrawn.

Under pressure from the Indian Olympic Committee, fresh elections to the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) were finally held in December 2023 but Brij Bhushan’s chosen proxy, Sanjay Singh won easily.

They didn’t even bother to pretend—a beaming and garlanded Brij Bhushan with his arm around Sanjay Singh. Singh (Sanjay, not Brij Bhushan) promptly........

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