Wrestler Bajrang Punia says he is returning his Padma Shri to PM amid row

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New Delhi, Dec 22, 2023: A day after Sakshee Mallikh announced that she was quitting the sport to protest the election of a close aide of Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh as the president of the Wrestling Federation of India, another top wrestler, Bajrang Punia, said on Friday that he has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and will be returning his Padma Shri to him.

 

Mr Punia was one of the wrestlers who had protested against Brij Bhushan, a BJP MP and former chief of the wrestling body, who was accused of sexual harassment by at least 12 women wrestlers.

After making an announcement on X, the Olympic medal-winning wrestler reached Kartavya Path on Friday evening and kept the Padma Shri medallion on a footpath there. It was later picked up by police personnel.

Mr Punia said, "When the women wrestlers are not given due respect, I do not deserve this honour either. We were on the road for 40 days, but the promises made by the government have not been fulfilled. Our fight is not against the government, but against an individual. I believe in the judiciary but, with what is happening, I can’t keep faith in the system."

Asked whether anything would change for him as far as wrestling is concerned, the Olympian said, "This will not have an impact on my wrestling career, and I am preparing for the Paris Olympics."

’Spent Whole Night Crying’

Sanjay Singh, a close aide of Brij Bhushan, won the election to the wrestling federation by a landslide on Thursday, defeating Commonwealth Games gold medallist Anita Sheoran, who was backed by the protesting wrestlers. Mr Singh got 40 votes against only 7 for Ms Sheoran.

In an emotional letter to PM Modi, Mr Punia pointed to Brij Bhushan’s remark after the election results on Thursday, when he had said, "dabdaba tha, dabdaba rahega" (our dominance will continue). The Olympian said it was this mental pressure that forced Ms Mallikh to quit the sport and that the wrestlers involved in the protest spent the whole night crying.

"I couldn’t understand where to go, what to do and how to live. The government and the people gave me so much respect. Should I continue to suffocate under the burden of this respect? In the year 2019, I was awarded the Padma Shri. I was also honoured with the Khel Ratna and Arjuna Award. I was very happy when I received these honours. It seemed that life had been successful. But, today, I am much unhappier than I was happy at the time, and these honours are suffocating me," Mr Punia wrote in Hindi.

“There is only one reason for this: It was wrestling that got me these honours and female wrestlers are now having to quit that very sport for their safety,” he added.

’Women Making India Proud’

The wrestler said sport has made a huge difference to the lives of girls and that no one could have imagined boys and girls playing together in the villages. He said women are making India proud in sports arenas on the international stage and asserted that this had only been possible because of the courage of the first generation of sportswomen.

"But even the shadow of those who have dominated or will continue to dominate scares women wrestlers, and now they have completely taken over again. The photo of them with garlands around their necks must have reached you," Mr Punia said in his letter to the PM.

"The daughters who were to become the brand ambassadors of ’Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’ were put in such a situation that they had to step back from their sport. We ’respectable’ wrestlers could not do anything. I will not be able to live my life as ’respectable’ after female wrestlers were insulted. Such a life would be suffocating. That’s why I am returning this ’honour’ to you," the letter said.