Victims mustered courage collectively: Wrestler Nirmala Boora

Tribune News Service

Hisar, January 20

Commonwealth Games (CWG) silver medallist and international wrestler Nirmala Boora today stated that there had been murmurs of exploitation of girl wrestlers for long, but the matter was not coming out in the open for obvious reasons.

Powerful lobby

These people in the WFI are so powerful that no individual can raise any voice against them. Nobody ever dared to lodge any complaint with the Sports Ministry or other authorities. Now, collectively we have mustered courage. Nirmala Boora, CWG Medallist

In an interview about the controversy surrounding the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, Boora, who was one of the wrestlers sitting on dharna in Delhi, stated, “I know about an audio recording in which a wrestler was issued life threat if she dared to open her mouth. We want to put such a clip before Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” Boora stated while talking to The Tribune over phone.

“These people in the WFI are so powerful that no individual can raise any voice against them. Nobody ever dared to lodge any complaint with the Sports Ministry or other authorities. Now, collectively we have mustered the courage to highlight the issues of exploitation and harassment of wrestlers,” she stated.

Boora, a resident of Ghiray village in Hisar district, had won silver medal in the 2010 Commonwealth Games for the country along with Phogat sisters — Geeta (gold medallist) and Babita (silver medallist). She is still playing and won the silver medal in the Asian Championship in 2020 and bagged silver in the recently held National Championship.

Alleging that he specifically used to “hate wrestlers from Haryana”, Boora stated that there was an audio clip which could purportedly expose the discriminatory attitude of the WFI chairperson towards wrestlers from Haryana. “He used to insult wrestlers from Haryana a lot and there were audio clips in this regard as well,” she said, adding that his attitude had harmed wrestling in a big way.

Asked how they were able to raise this issue now, she stated that there were many victims who shared their stories with each other. “We all are united on this issue. He is such a big gun that no individual can take him on,” she said. The international grappler stated that they don’t want any politics on this issue. “We rather want the exit of the political persons from the WFI and other sports federations,” she stated.

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