Wrestler Vinesh Phogat on Saturday returned her Arjuna and Khel Ratna awards and left them on the pavement on Kartavya Path (Rajpath) after Delhi police stopped her from reaching Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s office.
On Tuesday Vinesh had announced to renounce her awards protesting against the injustice to the country’s top wrestlers. Phogat had said such honours become meaningless as the wrestlers of the country were struggling to get justice.
Cops stopped Vinesh, who was seen walking with her awards towards the PM’s office around 5pm. She kept the awards in the middle of the pavement and left.
The recent election of Sanjay Singh, a close aide of BJP MP Brijbhushan Sharan Singh, as the president of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) triggered renewed protests from the top wrestlers.
Former WFI chief Brijbhushan is accused of sexually harassing women wrestlers.
After Sanjay Singh’s election, a tearful Olympic medalist Sakshi Malik had announced her retirement from wrestling. Later, fellow wrestler and Olympic medalist
Bajrang Punia also returned his Padma Shri and left it on the pavement as Vinesh did.
Bajrang appeal
Bajrang on Saturday urged the sports ministry to restart the wrestling activities in the country with just seven months remaining for next year’s Paris Olympics and said no one seemed to have taken the preparations for the quadrennial showpiece seriously.
Wrestling action has come to a standstill for the last several months owing to the turmoil within the fraternity following the grapplers’ protests.
“There is an Olympic Games after seven months but no one seems serious about it. Wrestling has given four consecutive medals in the last four Olympics,” Bajrang said.
With inputs from PTI
