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 came mere hours after the former WFI chief accused the ‘Hooda family’ and Congress of conspiring against him by using the wrestlers — just as Pandavas had put Draupadi at stake. Singh had also made waves on Saturday after accusing Phogat of ‘cheating’ and insisting that she was being ‘punished by God’.
According to an NDTV report quoting sources, the BJP has now asked Singh to ensure that he did not create a fresh controversy with his comments on the duo.
“In the gambling which took place in Mahabharat, Draupadi was put at stake. The Pandavas lost. The country is still not able to accept their reasons for doing it. The Hooda family … put the honour of daughters and sisters at stake. The future generation will not forgive them for this and they will always be held guilty for this…Bajrang Punia’s mental condition has deteriorated. He had put his wife at stake,” he told reporters on Sunday morning.
The senior BJP leader has repeatedly claimed that former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda plotted against him after his son Deepender Singh Hooda lost the WFI elections.
Singh had gained control of the Wrestling Federation of India in 2012 after a bitter turf war. He had held a vice-like grip on the body before the protest against him started last year for allegedly sexually harassing and intimidating women wrestlers. Phogat and Punia had spearheaded the agitation alongside fellow Olympian Sakshi Malik.
Singh has been vocal in his criticism of the duo since they joined the Congress on Friday. He had dubbed them the ‘villains of Haryana’ and insisted that the protests against him had been politically motivated. He also insisted that Vinesh Phogat had gone to th Olympics by ‘cheating’ and therefore ‘deserved’ whatever happened to her.
“Who is Bajrang Punia to even talk to me? He used his wife for political gains. Vinesh Phogat broke the rules by participating in a trial. The rule is that a player cannot give a trial in two weight categories on the same day. She took away the rights of junior wrestlers by giving an incorrect trial. They hijacked the entire system. The same weight she hid here became her downfall there (in Paris Olympics),” he said on Saturday.
(With inputs from agencies)
