Junior wrestlers from different parts of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, and Delhi, on Wednesday, flocked down to Jantar Mantar in New Delhi to protest against Sakshi Malik, Bajrang Punia, and Vinesh Phogat, say reports.
Malik, Punia and Phogat have been at the forefront of protests against former Wrestling Federation of India president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who they accuse of sexual harassment and intimidation.
The protests led to Singh’s ouster while also leading to the national federation being suspended by United World Wrestling, the international governing body for the sport. Due to the suspension, several junior and sub junior competitions were not organised in India.
The junior wrestlers blamed the senior grapplers for losing a year-worth of competitions due to the protests against Singh.
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At Jantar Mantar, the juniors were photographed carrying banners that read: “UWW save our wrestling from these 3 wrestlers,” along with slogans against the trio, as per a report in PTI.
Another poster, now circulating on social media platforms, read, “Sakshi, Bajrang, Vinesh Phogat destroyed the nation’s wrestling.”
This development comes just a day after reports emerged of several wrestlers from the country wrote to United World Wrestling asking for the body’s intervention in resolving the crisis which has engulfed Indian wrestling over the past year.
Last January, India’s top wrestlers came out in protest against Singh which was then called off after assurances from the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports.
However, the wrestlers returned to Jantar Mantar again in April after no action was taken against Singh. The protestors spent more than 40 days on the streets demanding removal of Singh, a Bharatiya Janta Party MP, from his post.
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Singh was finally removed from the position and an ad-hoc committee was appointed to run the daily affairs of the federation. Having no democratically elected executive body in place drew the ire of United World Wrestling, which suspended the Indian body with immediate effect in August.
The Wrestling Federation of India elections were eventually held in December with Sanjay Singh – a close aide of Brij Bushan, elected as president.
Hours after the election, 2016 Rio Olmypics medallist Malik announced her retirement in protest.
Punia returned his Padma Shri award while Phogat returned her Arjuna Award and Khel Ratna awards.
The Sports Ministry later suspended the newly elected Wrestling Federation of India body accusing it of blatantly disregarding norms and has appointed a fresh ad-hoc committee to run the federation.