World Wrestling body asks all countries to suspend dealing with India

Almost a fortnight after the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) revoke on India, the world wrestling body, United World Wrestling (UWW), has asked all the national federations under it to stop communication with the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI). The mandate was issued by the UWW in accord with the IOC's censure on India for denying visas to Pakistani athletes for the ISSF World Cup held New Delhi last month. The IOC suspended discussions with India for hosting future global events. In a letter to all national federations, the UWW highlighted India’s response was against the central Olympic principle of non-discrimination against any athlete, which was akin to the statement released by the IOC. During the previous Olympic Summit at Lausanne, the IOC had agreed that “the allocation of international sports events to a country must include the necessary guarantees to ensure equal treatment for the participating athletes and sporting delegations, without any form of discrimination or political interference from the host country.” The world body wrote,

“UWW recommends to all the affiliated and associated national wrestling federations to suspend their discussions or relations with the Indian wrestling federation”. Similar to the terms laid down by the IOC, UWW also mentioned that the boycott will prevail until the Indian government provides written guarantee of being non-discriminatory. The hostilities between India and Pakistan that engulfed even sporting ties on the wake of the Pulwama terror attacks on 14th February might conclude with a serious casualty. India might receive a big blow if it loses the hosting rights of Junior Asian Championships which was offered to India by UWW-Asia. The tournament was initially scheduled to be hosted in Lebanon from July 9-14, but its inability to host the event led UWW Asia offering it to India, a confirmation of which was supposed to come by Friday, reported Scroll.in. With the new development, India is unlikely to get the hosting rights of the tournament. India denied visas to Pakistani shooters for the ISSF World Cup in New Delhi in the wake of the Pulwama terror attack, which killed 40 CRPF personnel. As a result, the IOC revoked the two Olympic quotas on offer in the men's 25m Rapid Fire Pistol competition of the event. Following Pakistani athletes' visa denial, the IOC issued a statement that India will not host or bid for any sporting event until the Indian government provides written assurances for future events. The statement added,

“IOC executive board also decided to suspend all discussions with the Indian NOC and government regarding the potential applications for hosting future sports and Olympic-related events in India, until clear written guarantees are obtained from the Indian government to ensure the entry of all participants in such events in full compliance with the rules of the Olympic charter — and to recommend that the international federations (IFs) neither award nor hold sports events in India until the above-mentioned guarantees are obtained.” Sports continues to bear the brunt of intense war-mongering that has been doing the round following the Pulwama attacks. Whatever administrative steps India takes exercising its sporting rights will have ramifications where India will have bear the casualty. The UWW's letter not only puts India's hosting rights in question today, but the participation of Indian wrestlers and referees in UWW tournaments is under doubt.

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