But then, it was not one of the two styles of wrestling contested at the Olympics (the other being Greco-Roman) that one witnessed being played out with amateur anguish and professional violence last Sunday at Jantar Mantar. Not too far away, the ‘Jana Gana Mana’ site of the new Parliament Building was being inaugurated around the same time the Delhi Police were doing their job of clearing what the central government would go on to describe as being an act of ‘deliberate provocation’. You know when a danga and a dangal becomes one confusing tangle.
Optics matters as much in statist ceremonies as it does in weddings. Removing agitators protesting against Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief and BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh and demanding his arrest for alleged sexual harassment of women wrestlers, was part of a hygiene exercise in the same vein as removing that embarrassing ex of the bride who has gatecrashed and is drunk and creating a scene at the wedding reception.
So, what if Vinesh Phogat, Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia are World Championship and Olympic medal winners for India? They had called for a women’s mahapanchayat on Sunday, crossed over police barricades, which were later reportedly broken by other protestors. In the land of the new Parliament Building no one is above the law.
The optics, however, were there for all to see – or, at least those who chose to see (or show) it.
Vinesh and Sangeeta Phogat locked in a unwrestlers’ protective embrace on the ground with an Indian flag fallen next to them and a tan coloured shoe and police trousers visible in the frame. A frantically fighting Sakshi Malik being held back and pulled away by a whole team of women in uniform. ‘You have been informed not to raise any anti-national slogans or carry out any protest that is against the country. Don’t take part in any anti-national activity; today is a proud moment for the country that the new Parliament building is being inaugurated,’ a police vehicle arriving at the spot announced over a loudspeaker.
Less than three kilometres away, WFI chief and the man who may not be considered antinational, but is certainly being identified as being anti-women, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, waving into the camera with a smile and with the new Parliament Building about to be inaugurated behind him. The words ‘Satyamev Jayate’ inscribed above the entrance seem to have been chosen as a caption to his photo.
Now to see where our country’s sportspersons and heroes stand on the rather two disjointed versions of a Sunday in post-Lutyens Delhi. Will they follow the likes of Anil Kumble, Robin Uthappa, Irfan Pathan and a few others in being ‘dismayed’ and ‘saddened’? They needn’t take a knee, like the Indian national men’s team did in a show of solidarity to the Black Lives Matter movement in 2021. They just need to get a grip of how this country places one set of optics over another.
