Protesting Wrestlers Will “Immerse Medals” In Ganga At Haridwar
NEW DELHI: India’s top wrestlers today said they will immerse their medals in the Ganges, protesting against BJP MP and National Wrestling Federation president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who is accused of sexually harassing several women wrestlers, including minors. The river in the holy city of Haridwar in Uttarakhand, they feel, has “no meaning” and is only being used as a “mask” for propaganda by the organisation. The wrestlers have already left for Haridwar and are planning to immerse their medals at 6 pm today, after which they will fast till death at India Gate in Delhi, they said.
After losing the medals, they said that even though “their lives had no meaning”, they could not continue to compromise their self-esteem.
“…These medals adorning our necks seem to have no meaning anymore. It kills me to think of returning them, but what’s the point of living without your self-respect,” tweeted a letter in Hindi. The exits were led by top athletes who have been leading protests since the start of the year.
The letter said they were considering who to return the medals to. “The president, a woman, sat two kilometers away and watched. She didn’t say anything,” it said, wondering why they didn’t want to return it to her.
The wrestlers alleged that the Prime Minister did not ask about them even once.
Instead, our oppressor (Brij Bhushan Singh) clicked pictures in a dazzling white dress at the inauguration of the new Parliament building. This white man was biting us as if to say, ‘I am the system,'” tweet top grapplers Sakshi Malik, Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia in the letter.
— Sakshee Malikkh (@SakshiMalik) May 30, 2023
We don’t need these medals anymore because this organization hangs its own propaganda around our necks and masks us. “Then they exploit us and jail us if we protest,” it added.
The wrestlers said they have chosen the river Ganga because it is “our mother”. They said that they worked hard to win these medals with the same purity as the Ganga is considered sacred, and that the medals are sacred to the entire district and the holy river is a fitting place for them.
