In a shocking turn of events, India’s top female wrestlers announced to dump their Olympic medals into the Ganges, the country’s holiest river — as part of their ongoing protest — but postponed later, giving the government to take actions or respond within five days.
The protest started after wrestlers demanded the resignation and arrest of India’s Wrestling Federation Chief, Brij Bhushan Singh, whom they accuse of sexually harassing female wrestlers.
The enraged wrestlers gathered near the river in the north Indian town of Haridwar on Tuesday, but local media portals suggested that the leader of the influential BKU farming union’s leader, Naresh Tikait, negotiated and convinced them to postpone the protest.
The atheletes planned to go on an indefinite hunger strike held at India Gate — a war memorial in capital Delhi.
“These medals are our life and soul… We feel there’s no meaning to having these medals around our necks anymore,” the wrestlers said in a statement on Tuesday, according to Indian media portals.
Among the protestors were Olympic medallists Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia, and two-time world champion medallist Vinesh Phogat.
The wrestlers first considered returning their medals to the Indian President and Prime Minister Modi.
“After we put them [the medals] in the Ganges, there would be no meaning for us to live. So we will got to India Gate and sit on a fast unto death,” they stated.
Singh, an influential politician and MP of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), denied all the sexual harassment allegations, and labelled the protests politically motivated.
Harrowing scenes of the wrestlers being manhandled and detained — who were stopped by the police just a few miles away from the new Parliament — have been circulating on the internet sparking outrage.
On Sunday, Malik, Punia and Phogat were among several detained whom the Delhi Police filed cases against.
Wrestling’s world governing body has issued its first statement about the protests by the Indian wrestlers. pic.twitter.com/7mJxWoomQv
— ESPN India (@ESPNIndia) May 30, 2023
Indian women and student activists are detained by Delhi police while demonstrating in support of the country’s wrestlers. The wrestlers are seeking the arrest of Wrestling Federation head Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh who faces sexual harassment charges #WrestlerProtest pic.twitter.com/cRkwl8pxG6
— Peoples Dispatch (@peoplesdispatch) May 28, 2023
She is Sakshi Malik, an Olympics Medalist of India???????? & also a Padma Shri & Khel Ratna Awardee.
She was brutally detained when she was protesting & demanding action against BJP’s MPA & President of Indian Wrestling Federation for harassing female wrestlers.#WrestlersProtest https://t.co/yPpLDhKnnx pic.twitter.com/szPYMuEEAS
— The Strategic Talks (@TalksStrategic) May 28, 2023
Previously, in a letter addressed to the president of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), five leading wrestlers demanded a “safe and secure place” for young wrestlers, especially sportswomen.
