Five months since the wrestlers started their protest and 20 months of Prime Minister Narendra Modi knowing about the sexual abuse, we are nowhere close to a solution.
Narendra Modi knew.
Of all the wrenching stories that we saw and heard in the tear-glazed month of May, this is the hardest to process, to wrap our minds around: That the Prime Minister allegedly knew of systemic sexual abuse in the Wrestling Federation of India and, particularly, at the hands of its strongman president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.
According to detailed witness testimony recorded by the Delhi police in front of a magistrate, Modi knew, and promised action, as far back as August 2021.
When the distraught wrestlers began their protests in January this year, Modi knew. …
Prem Panicker has been a journalist for over 30 years. From daily newspapers to weekly magazines and digital news portals—he was one of the seven journalists who were part of the Rediff.com start-up team—he has written and edited features extensively across mediums and publications. Since quitting his job at Yahoo in 2014, he has been working as a freelance writer and editor, as well as teaching narrative journalism.
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