The ongoing wrestlers’ protest in the national capital has taken a new turn, with India’s top grapplers Sakshi Malik, Bajrang Punia, and Vinesh Phogat pledging to throw their medals in the Ganga on Tuesday evening in Haridwar.
The wrestlers took to Twitter to express their displeasure with the recent events and the way authorities handled the situation. The protesting wrestlers have stated that they will travel to Haridwar on Tuesday and throw their medals into the Ganga at 6 p.m. They have stated that after throwing their medals, they will go on hunger strike at India Gate.
Wrestlers wrote in their post that “You saw everything that happened on May 28, how police treated us and the way they arrested us. We were protesting peacefully, our place has been taken away and the next day serious cases and FIR were filed against us. Have the wrestlers committed any crime by demanding justice for the sexual harassment that happened to them? The police and the system are treating us like criminals, while the oppressor is taking jibe moving freely. He is even openly talking about changing the POSCO Act.”
Several top wrestlers, including Bajrang Punia, Vinesh Phogat, and Sakshi Malik, have been protesting Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, accusing him of sexual harassment and demanding his arrest.
They also questioned how the female wrestlers were forced to hide for the entire day.
“Yesterday, many of our women wrestlers were hiding in the fields. The system should arrest the oppressor but it is engaged in breaking and intimidating the victim women to end their protest,” the grapplers claimed.
They went on to say that these medals now have no meaning.