New Delhi: “We want to talk to the Prime Minister… ask the Home Minister to call us,” ace wrestler Vinesh Phogat said Thursday as their roadside protest against Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh neared its third week.
The grapplers had a bumpy Wednesday night during which drunk policemen beat them up, they claimed, leading to several injuries. The athletes were trying to get in folding beds to their makeshift protest site at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar when this happened.
The police countered this charge and said an altercation took place when they tried to stop Aam Aadmi Party’s Somnath Bharti from sneaking in folding beds without permission.
Bharti was detained, as was Congress’ Deepinder Hooda when he visited the site to express solidarity.
Jantar Mantar swarmed with cops on Thursday morning while the wrestlers spoke with the media. Commonwealth gold medallist Vinesh Phogat was asked if politicians were trying to cash in on the situation. “This is not political. Please make us talk to the Prime Minister. Ask the Home Minister to call us. We have put our careers and lives on the line…,” she said.
#WATCH | Delhi: If this is how the wrestlers will be treated, what will we do with the medals? Rather we will live a normal life & return all the medals & awards to the Indian Government: Wrestler Bajrang Punia at Jantar Mantar pic.twitter.com/mvXqqiFVpR
— ANI (@ANI) May 4, 2023
Olympic medal winner Bajrang Punia said they had no use for such accolades “if this was the respect given to them”. “What will we do with them? It is best we return the medals and awards to the government,” said Punia, a prominent face of the protests along with Phogat and Sakshi Malik.
He added that women and the country’s daughters “were begging on the streets for justice”. “If they can rise above politics and give these women justice, then the country will be grateful to them,” Punia said in an indirect appeal to the central government.
Phogat said she has asked Indian Olympic Association chief P.T. Usha — who visited the wrestlers Wednesday — to raise the issue in Parliament. “All she wanted was for us to end the protest. To start training. But the matter is in the Supreme Court. And we shall not step back,” she added.
Last week, Usha angered the wrestlers by saying their protest amounted to indiscipline and that it had tarnished the image of the country.
She told the media: “The IOA has a committee for sexual harassment. Instead of going to the streets, they (protesting wrestlers) could have come to us earlier, but they did not. It is not good for sports… they should have some discipline.”
This is the second time in three months that wrestlers have made Jantar Mantar their makeshift protest site, squatting in public against the WFI chief, who is also a BJP MP. Seven wrestlers, including a minor, have brought sexual harassment charges against Singh.
Last week, following an intervention of the Supreme Court, the Delhi Police registered two cases against Singh on the sexual harassment charges. But the wrestlers have said that was not enough – they want Singh dismissed by the WFI and are threatening to camp at the protest site until that happens.
Also read: We are ready to return all our medals and awards: Vinesh, Bajrang