Haryana sports minister Anil Vij today hit back at Olympic bronze-medallist wrestler Sakshi Malik’s claims of the state not honouring their promises, claiming that “some people may have prevailed upon her” to lash out at the ministry, reported PTI.
The 24-year-old lashed out at the Haryana government in a series of tweets yesterday. Malik wrote “Medal ka vada maine pura kiya, Haryana sarkar apna vada kab pura karegi? (I fulfilled my promise of winning an Olympic medal for the country, when will the Haryana government fulfill its promises?),” Malik said, tagging Union Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs Vijay Goel in her tweets, as well. The wrestler also questioned whether all the promises made were “only for the media”.
Vij stated that she was handed a cheque and that the process of finding her a job in the university of her choice was on, “We gave a cheque of Rs 2.5 crore the day she landed in India (after the Olympics event),” Vij said. “Regarding the issue of job, she had an unique demand. She had sought job at Maharishi Dayanand University in Rohtak. But it takes time to complete the whole process. We have taken all the approval and MDU has also framed rules and she will be appointed Director of Sports at MDU,” he added.
The minister also asserted that only one of her trainers would be handed an award. “She had given names of 3-4 coaches from whom she got training. But we asked her to give us one name with affidavit and we will give him the award. But that has not been given yet. We cannot give award to all the coaches,” Vij said.
Vij also cried conspiracy over the episode, “Some people may have prevailed upon her to write in this manner. Sports politics is deeper than our real politics and we do not understand that,” he added.