Mamata Banerjee on Friday threw her weight behind Vinesh Phogat, offering her “shongrami obhinondon (revolutionary greetings)” to the Olympian currently in the middle of a tragic tale of epic proportions in Paris, hinting at a conspiracy at play behind the freestyle wrestler’s predicament.
The Bengal chief minister — formerly a junior Union sports minister — said she was upset with what the 29-year-old grappler had been going through at the Olympics this week.
“I am pained,” said Mamata at a state government event at Jhargram, to mark the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, where she also paid tributes to Mahatma Gandhi on the occasion of the Quit India Day.
“The girl (Phogat) who could have brought gold… for what reason, or why, how she was deprived. That the people of this nation will know in the coming days,” added the Trinamool Congress chief. “But to her too, I convey my many shongrami obhinondon (a greeting in common parlance among the Bengali-speaking Left).”
Even on Friday, Phogat tried fighting a rather lonely battle in the French capital, to get a Court of Arbitration for Sport verdict in favour of a joint silver, after being dubiously disqualified for being overweight by 100 grams at the weigh-in before the final of the 50kg category. This came a day after she made weight for the pre-quarter final, quarter final, and semi-final, all of which she won convincingly.
Although this is the first time Mamata spoke about this in public, her party has been fiercely vocal on this, clearly alleging a “sinister, saffron conspiracy” to sabotage the wrestler at the highest stage, because she had made the front-pages of newspapers globally while being dragged down the streets of Delhi, not far from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s residence, for demanding action against sexual assault-accused BJP leader Brij Bhushan Saran Singh.
Trinamool raised this issue inside and outside the Parliament, and its national general secretary demanded a Bharat Ratna for Phogat.
“The GOVERNMENT and OPPOSITION should find a way to form a consensus and either award VINESH PHOGAT the BHARAT RATNA or nominate her to a PRESIDENT -NOMINATED RS SEAT, acknowledging the extraordinary mettle she has demonstrated,” Abhishek Banerjee, Mamata’s nephew and heir apparent, had posted on X.
“This is the least we can do for her, considering the immense struggle she has faced. No MEDAL can fully reflect her true METTLE. #Olympics,” the Diamond Harbour MP had added.
Mamata and Abhishek’s party is now the fourth-largest in the Lok Sabha, and the third-largest in the Rajya Sabha, and is a key constituent of the anti-BJP INDIA bloc, breathing down the Modi regime’s neck since the general election results.
