Will fight for wrestlers, let Centre lock me up: CM Mamata Banerjee

KOLKATA/ DELHI: CM Mamata Banerjee on Thursday, while voicing her support for wrestlers, dared the Centre to lock her and her supporters up to stop them from protesting.
“Till BJP remains in power, there will be no evidence against its leaders. If action is not taken as per law, we will continue our fight. I may have to go to jail, but many others will follow me.I want to see how many jails they have to lock us all inside. This is the fight for humanity, justice, self-respect, truth, and of course life,” she said while attending a candle light vigil to show solidarity with protesting wrestlers at the base of football legend Gostha Pal’s statue near Eden Gardens.
Banerjee accused the Centre of appointing a BJP leader at the head of every sports organisation. “Previously, political leaders could not head any sports organisation. I was once the Union sports minister and had instituted this rule. There has been a Pocso case registered against the WFI chief, and despite the court’s intervention, nothing has been done by the police. Not only removed from post, the BJP leader should be arrested. I am ashamed of the incident. BJP leaders keep saying, ‘one party, one nation, one leader, one law’. If there is one law for all, then why are wrestlers being discriminated against? Why are they not getting justice as per the law?” said Banerjee.
She further added that the Centre took credit when athletes toiled hard to get international medals but when they demanded justice, the same government beat them up using police.
“We were on the road and will be on the road for justice as the road shows us the way forward. I plead to all players and persons associated with sports to not remain silent. They should all stand up against the criminal activities that are being perpetrated by the central government,” Banerjee said.
In New Delhi, Trinamool MPs walked out of a meeting of the parliamentary standing committee on education, women, children, youth and sports on Thursday, after chairman Vivek Thakur, BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP, allegedly denied a request to discuss safeguards for women athletes.
TMC members of the standing committee, Sushmita Dev and Asit Kumar Mal, requested that the panel take up for discussion the issue. Dev had asked if internal complaints committees had been formed at different sports federations and if they were active, sources said.
The chair, according to sources, refused to take up the matter for discussion as it was “not on the agenda”and that it was sub-judice.
“At a time when our women athletes are doing well, we need to create safe working spaces for them. With the kind of allegations that have come from women wrestlers, many families are unlikely to encourage their girls to join the playing arena… This is not the first case… We should all work on improving the safety for women athletes,” Dev said later.