"Will Resign If...": Wrestling Body Chief Facing #MeToo Protest Tells NDTV

Drawing fire over sexual harassment allegations by top wrestlers, BJP MP and chief of the country's wrestling federation Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh has reiterated that the charges are baseless, but added that he is ready to step down if Prime Minister Narendra Modi or BJP asks him to.

Mr Singh's recent remark, in which he said he would resign if PM Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah or BJP chief JP Nadda asked him to, has put the BJP in a spot. Opposition parties, which have been accusing the BJP leadership of shielding Mr Singh despite the serious allegations, are now demanding that the PM asked the MP to step down.

In an interview to NDTV, Mr Singh said, "Why will (Prime Minister) Modi ji ask me to (resign)? And if he asks me to, I will. If my party is suffering because of me, its image is being maligned, then if Modi ji or the party asks me to (resign), I will."

The country's top wrestlers, including Vinesh Phogat, Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia, have been protesting at Delhi's Jantar Mantar for a week now. They have been demanding action into allegations of sexual harassment against Mr Singh by several wrestlers, including a minor.

Delhi Police has filed two cases against Mr Singh following the recent allegations of sexual harassment. One of them has been registered under the stringent Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act on a minor's complaint.

Several opposition leaders have met the wrestlers and extended their support to them. They have also raised the matter during the campaign for the upcoming Assembly polls in Karnataka. 

Asked about the wrestlers' protest turning into a poll issue in Karnataka, Mr Singh said, "In our camps, wrestlers from Karnataka come too. So do wrestlers from Kerala, Bengal, Odisha, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh. Why don't such incidents happen to them? Why only with these people? [the protesting wrestlers]."

"I have given the slogan, 'one family, one akhada', you tell me, where are (the others)?," Mr Singh said, rattling the names of several wrestlers who had not joined the protest so far.

The six-time MP from Uttar Pradesh has alleged a political conspiracy against him. While he did not name the "family", it is an apparent reference to the Phogat family, which has given the country many top wrestlers and has come out strongly against Mr Singh.

Vinesh and Bajrang Punia, her brother-in-law are among the prominent faces of the ongoing protest. Geeta Phogat, Vinesh's cousin and the eldest of the Phogat sisters whose story inspired the movie Dangal, has been backing the protest. Geeta's younger sister Babita, a leader of BJP's youth wing, has come under criticism, with the wrestlers asking her not to "weaken" their protest.

Deepender Hooda, a Rajya Sabha MP, has trashed Mr Singh's allegations against him. Accusing him of trying to "divert attention from his crimes", Mr Hooda said, "It's a criminal issue related to respect for our daughters. I would like to tell BJP that this is not a political issue."