High drama as wrestlers postpone immersing medals in river Ganga after Tikait’s appeal

HARIDWAR: A high voltage drama was witnessed at Haridwar’s Har-Ki-Pauri on Tuesday evening after the protesting wrestlers, led by Olympians Bajrang Punia, Vinesh Phogat and Sakshee Malikkh, postponed the immersion of their national and international medals in river Ganga following the intervention of farmer leader Naresh Tikait, who sought five days’ time to resolve the issue involving the arrest of Wrestling Federation of India’s (WFI) sidelined president, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who is facing serious charges of sexual harassment from seven female grapplers, including a minor.
The wrestlers told Tikait, chief of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), that if nothing happened in the next five days, they would return to Har-Ki-Pauri to immerse their medals, including those won at the Olympics, Asian and Commonwealth Games (CWG). Tikait, who belongs to Balyan Khap and is also the brother of BKU spokesperson Rakesh Tikait, assured the wrestlers that if the central government doesn’t heed to the protestors’ demand to arrest Singh, the Khap panchayats of Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan will take a decisive call on the matter, including cutting off the milk and vegetable supply in Delhi and NCR region.
The wrestlers, who were seen sobbing and holding their medals close to their chest, offered them to Tikait and another farmer leader Baba Shyam Singh Malik, before leaving Har-Ki-Pauri in a convoy surrounded by hundreds of supporters. Later, it’s been learnt, the wrestles and Khap leaders, including Tikait brothers, assembled in Muzaffarnagar to address a large gathering of community elders, where it was decided to ‘gherao’ the borders of Delhi on June 5.
“They need to be training on mats in akhadas and stadiums but have been forced to sit at Jantar Mantar and now at sacred Ganga ghat. Instead of ill-treating and detaining them, action should have been taken against Brij Bhushan. We are with our wrestlers in this fight. We had shown with the farmers’ agitation that truth can’t be silenced. In this case also, sooner or later victory will be of truth,” Tikait told reporters here.
“We are giving the government five days to act against Brij Bhushan. Consider it as our ultimatum. This is a fight for justice. If the government doesn’t act, we will do something big and only the ruling dispensation will be responsible for it,” he added.
It's been learnt that the wrestlers were stopped from immersing medals by the River Ganga Protection Committee (RGPC) on the occasion of Ganga Dussehra on Tuesday, which saw lakhs of devotees thronging the holy ghats of Har-Ki-Pauri to offer prayers. After being denied permission, the wrestlers sat near one of the banks and started sobbing, holding medals in their arms. Sakshee was seen consoling by her husband Satyawart Kadian as she wept gripping her framed Rio Olympics bronze medals won in 2016. Bajrang’s wife Sangeeta Phogat held her husband’s Tokyo Olympics bronze medal in her hand, while Vinesh cried holding her World Championships and recently-won Birmingham CWG gold medals.
The wrestlers had, on Tuesday morning, tweeted about immersing their medals in river Ganga at 6pm as a mark of protest over alleged police’s inaction against Singh, following which they had planned to start an indefinite hunger strike at the Indian Gate war memorial. “These medals are our life and soul. We are going to throw them in the Ganges. After that, there is no point in living, so we will sit on a hunger strike until death at India Gate,” Bajrang, Vinesh and Sakshee had said in a joint statement posted on their respective twitter accounts in Hindi. The Delhi police had denied them permission for the same, citing law and order problems.
Reacting sharply to the wrestlers’ call to immerse their medals, the sports ministry reminded them that the medals belonged to the country and not to individuals. “Going by the version of the wrestlers, they are not trusting the legal system or the police investigations, nor the findings of the oversight committee. They don’t trust anyone. The medals that the wrestlers have won do not belong to them alone, but to the country, because they played under the Indian flag and their medals have been won with the efforts of not just the wrestlers’ hard work but also the hard work of multiple people like their coaches, support staff,” the ministry said.
“More than 150 crores have been spent in the last five years in wrestling just so that the wrestlers can get the best training, coaching and infrastructure facilities. They have been sent for foreign training, trained at national camps and competed internationally to hone their skills and win medals in Olympics, Asian Games and CWG. This money belongs to taxpayers,” the ministry added.