India's Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist wrestler Bajrang Punia on December 22 wrote an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi returning his Padma Shri award to mark his protest a day after Sanjay Singh, a close associate of Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh was elected as the president of Wrestling Federation of India.
Following the letter, Punia left his Padma Shri medal on the footpath outside PM Modi's residence in Delhi on December 22.
Earlier, Rio Olympics bronze medallist wrestler Sakshi Malik had announced her retirement following the WFI elections.
“I am returning my Padma Shri award to the Prime Minister. This is a letter to say that,” Punia posted on X.
“Dear Prime Minister ji, hope your health is well. You must be busy in many work but I am writing this to draw your attention to what is happening 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 Brij Bhushan Singh, accusing him of sexual harassment. I too had joined their protest. The protest stopped after the government promised strong action,” the 29-year-old wrote.
“But even after three months, there was no FIR against Brij Bhushan. So we took to the streets in April again so that the Delhi police would at least file an FIR against him. There were 19 complainants in January but the number came down to 7 by April. This means Brij Bhushan exerted his influence and forced the other 12 wrestlers to leave their protests,” he continued.
“Our protest went on for 40 days. There was much pressure on us during those days. Our protest site was vandalised and we were also not allowed to protest any more. We did not know what to do next so we went to immerse our medals in the Ganga. Then we were stopped by the farmer leaders and coaches. At that time a minister from your cabinet called us up and assured us justice. We also met the Union home minister who also promised us of justice. So, we stopped our protest,” the statement further stated.
“But in the election of the WFI on December 21, the federation came under Brij Bhushan once again. He himself said he would prevail over the federation like he did always. Coming under tremendous pressure, Sakshi Malik announced her retirement from wrestling,” he continued.
“We did not understand what to do, or where to go. The government has given us a lot. I was conferred with the Padma Shri in 2019. I also received the Arjuna, Khel Ratna award. When I got these awards, I was on cloud nine. But today the sadness weighs more. And the reason is a woman wrestler left the sport because of her security,” the wrestler concluded.
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