Karnataka Wrestling Association said the controversial WFI chief and BJP MP has other engagements on the same dates.
Former chief of Wrestling Federation of India and BJP MP Brij Bhushan
Former chief of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) Brij Bhushan, accused of sexually assaulting and harassing women athletes, will not attend the Bengaluru Kambala, the Karnataka Wrestling Association (KWA) has said amidst a controversy over the latter extending an invitation to him.
On Tuesday, 21 November, the KWA took a U-turn and dropped its decision to invite Bhushan, also a BJP MP from Kaiserganj in Uttar Pradesh, to the event.
“We have cancelled the plan to invite Brij Bhushan as the chief guest to the Kambala event for two reasons: Since he is also the vice-president of the Asian Wrestling Association, and he has a World Federation meeting to attend in Germany on the same dates; and two, the BJP MP has Z-category security which the state cannot offer him during the Kambala,” Vinod Kumar K, Chairman of KWA’s Technical Board told South First.
He added that the MP’s office had informed the state association at 11.30 pm on Monday that he would not be attending the event, a traditional carnival with buffalo races.
Bhushan is facing charges of sexual harassment after the Delhi police registered two FIRs against him based on 10 complaints they had received from female wrestlers. He has been accused of demanding sexual favours and molesting female wrestlers, among other charges.
Kambala associations across the state are organising the event for the first time in Bengaluru. The day-and-night event will be held at the Palace Grounds on 25 and 26 November.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, Union and state ministers, Assembly Speaker, BJP leader Aravind Limbavalli, and several other MLAs, especially from Coastal Karnataka, have been invited to the event. Actors Rajinikanth, Aishwarya Rai and Darshan are also expected to attend.
Puttur MLA Ashok Kumar Rai, who is also the convener of the Bengaluru Kambala Committee, told reporters on Tuesday that Bhushan will not attend the event. He reiterated that Kambala is a state event and is enjoyed by everyone.
“Both Congress and BJP leaders and functionaries are part of this event. There will be several organisations and associations that individually come up with their requisitions and we have to try to accommodate them all,” he said,
Ashok Kumar Rai added that the late actor Puneeth Rajkumar’s fans’ association had approached for naming a particular event in Kambala.
Kambala is a traditional sport in Karnataka and other parts of the west coast. (Wikimedia Commons)
Similarly, the Siddhi tribal community associations had approached the organisers and requested that WFI chief Brij Bhushan be invited. They threatened to boycott the event if Bhushan was not invited, the Congress MLA said.
KWA’s Vinod Kumar that young Siddhi tribespeople and free-style wrestlers from the community approached the Kambala organisers, saying the state for the first time had won a bronze at the Goa National Games with the support of the WFI.
“It was their idea to invite the chief of the Wrestling Federation of India to the state’s traditional Kambala event,” Vinod Kumar said.
MLA Ashok Kumar Rai said the event will be a smooth affair. He also said that a meeting was held with the owners of racing buffaloes. More than 130 pairs of buffaloes from Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, and Kerala’s Kasaragod will be transported to Bengaluru. The organisers are expecting about seven to eight lakh people to attend the event.
The Kambala will require around ₹6 crore and the organisers will also seek the government’s support. There were demands from some politicians and businessmen to hold races in their names, but the buffaloes’ owners disagreed.
The event will be organised without violating the Supreme Court guidelines. There will be teams of veterinary doctors and ambulances. The organisers have booked rooms to accommodate around 150 Kambala buffalo owners in Bengaluru. The Kambala winner will get two sovereigns of gold and the runner-up will get one sovereign.
The organisers said all arrangements have been made to earn international recognition for this traditional sport.
In February 2020, Kambala buffalo jockey Srinivasa Gowda was dubbed the Usain Bolt of Karnataka. During a Kambala race.
Gowda and his buffaloes managed to finish 142.5 metres in 13.62 seconds. When the organisers back-calculated the timing for 100 metres, Gowda had finished the distance in 9.55 seconds, 0.03 seconds faster than Bolt’s record time of 9.58 seconds. However, the assist of the speeding buffaloes was not calculated.
Known to be a 400-year-old sporting tradition in Karnataka, the Kambala shot to fame again after Gowda’s feat and with the release of a multi-crore box-office hit film, Kantara.
Kambala is an annual race held from November to March in Coastal Karnataka usually after harvesting the paddy. The sport involves a jockey racing a pair of buffaloes with a yoke and plow through the muddy paddy field tracks and completing the distance in the shortest time.
The race happens amid traditional carnival-type festivities with entertainments for all. Additional attractions include Bhootakola and Yakshagana — two traditional art forms — performances after the races.
The Supreme Court had banned Kambala after animal rights activists raised charges of cruelty to buffaloes.
However, with coercion from the elected representatives and a section of Kambala lovers from Coastal Karnataka, the government through The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Karnataka Amendment) Ordinance, 2017, made the sport legal in Karnataka.
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