India's Tokyo Olympic medallist Bajrang Punia has returned his Padma Shri award amid protests against the election of Sanjay Singh, a close-aid of outgoing chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, as the new Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief. Punia's statement came a day after Sakshi Malik decided to quit the sport citing Sanjay Singh's election as the WFI chief.
In a detailed statement, Punia wrote, “Dear Prime Minister hope you're doing well. You must be busy in working for the country but amid all this, I want to draw your attention to the wrestlers of the country. You must be aware that the women wrestlers of the country started a protest in January this year against Brish Bhushan Singh accusing him of sexual harassment. I too joined their protest. The protest stopped after the government promised strong action.
“But there was no FIR against Brij Bhushan even after three months and we again took to the streets in April so that the police would at least file an FIR against him. But that didn't happen so we had to move court to get an FIR registered. There were 19 complainants in January but the number came down to 7 by April. This means Brij Bhushan exerted his influence on 12 women wrestlers,” Bajrang Punia further added.
Sanjay Singh won the WFI elections 40:7 against former Commonwealth Games gold medallist Anita Sheoran. The elections which were supposed to take place in June were postponed to August and again to September after the Punjab and Haryana High Court order.
The three Indian wrestlers, Vinesh Phogat, Punia and Sakshi Malik, who were at the centre of the protests against the accused Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, held a press conference after the declaration of the results. There Sakshi announced that she was quitting wrestling. “We fought from our heart but if a man like Brij Bhushan, his business partner and a close aide is elected as the president of WFI, I give up wrestling. From today onwards you will not see me on the mat,” she said while keeping her shoes on the table.
Punia added that their protest went on for 40 days and one more female wrestler backed out. “We were pressurised a lot. Our protest site was demolished, we were kicked out of Delhi and were barred from protesting. We were clueless as to what to do now, hence we resorted to immersing our medals in the Ganga river,” Punia said.
The veteran mentioned that the farmers present at the river banks and their coaches didn't let them throw away their medals before one of the members of the ruling party talked to them and even the Home Minister Amit Shah assured them that they will get justice and Brij Bhushan will be thrown out. However, Punia mentioned that Brij Bhushan's statement 'dabdaba that, dabdaba rahega' on December 21 didn't feel right as despite everything he had the confidence to say that even though he was not the president.
“I couldn't understand where to go, what to do and how to live. The government and the people gave me so much respect. Should I continue to suffocate under the burden of this respect? In the year 2019, I was awarded the Padma Shri. I was also honoured with the Khel Ratna and Arjuna Award. I was very happy when I received these honours. It seemed that life had been successful. But, today, I am much unhappier than I was happy at the time, and these honours are suffocating me,” Punia further wrote while mentioning that it was the mental pressure that forced Malik to quit the sport.
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