Controversial six-term Lok Sabha member from Uttar Pradesh and Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who is facing serious allegations of sexual harassment by wrestlers, on Sunday addressed a rally organised by him under the BJP’s ‘Mahasampark Abhiyan’ on completion of the Narendra Modi government’s nine years in office. Earlier, Mr. Singh, followed by a convoy of more than 1,000 four-wheelers and two-wheelers, took out a rally from his house in Gonda to Shri Raghuraj Sharan Singh Mahavidyalaya, next to Balapur on Gonda-Lucknow road, the meeting venue. He stopped at different intersections, with supporters waving at him and joining en route to the rally ground, the event seen as a show of strength by the parliamentarian amid rising pressure.
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Mr. Singh, without referring to the wrestlers’ protests, started his address with a poem making references to the suffering, betrayal, and love. “Kabhi ashq, kabhi gham, to kabhi zeher piya jata hai. Tab jakar jamane me jiya jata hai. Yeh mila mujhko mohabbat ka sila, bewafa kehke mera naam liya jata hai. Isko ruswai kahen ki shohrat apni, dabe hontho se mera naam liya jata hai [Sometimes you drink tears, sometimes sadness, and at times poison. Only then do you live in society. This is the reward I have received for my love; they call me unfaithful. Call it notoriety or fame, they take my name with pursed lips],” he said, dressed in a saffron robe and turban, wearing a saffron scarf with Mr. Modi’s face on it, amid thunderous applause from a sizeable crowd which predominantly came in from neighbouring Bahraich, Balrampur and Ayodhya, apart from different parts of Gonda.
