Wrestlers Protest: Wrestlers return from Haridwar without immersing medals
Vinesh Phogat, Sakshi Malik, Bajrang Punia reached Haridwar today to immerse their medals in the Ganga in protest against the harassment of women wrestlers. But Shri Ganga Sabha committee stopped them from immersing the medal at Har ki Pauri. Shri Ganga Sabha President Nitin Gautam said that ‘Har ki Pauri is the holy pilgrimage place of Sanatan. Wrestlers may take a dip. Do charitable work. But the medal will not be allowed to be immersed. Har ki Pauri will not be allowed to become a political arena.’
Wrestler returned after convincing Naresh Tikait
National spokesperson of Bharatiya Kisan Union Tikait, Naresh Tikait reached the spot to meet the wrestlers. He explained to the wrestlers for a long time. He assured the wrestlers that he would hold talks to get justice for the wrestlers. After this, the wrestlers returned to Delhi after about two and a half hours.
On Tuesday, Bajrang Punia had given the information about floating the medal in Ganga on his Twitter account. He wrote, ‘You all saw what happened on 28 May. How did the police treat us? How brutally we were arrested. We were doing a peaceful movement. The place of our agitation was also vandalized by the police and snatched away from us and the next day in serious cases FIR was lodged against us. Have women wrestlers committed any crime by seeking justice for the sexual harassment meted out to them? The police and machinery are treating us like criminals, while the oppressors are cracking down on us in open meetings. By confessing his uncomfortable incidents to women wrestlers on TV, he is turning them into laughs. He is even openly talking about changing the Paxo Act. Women wrestlers are feeling from inside that we have nothing left in this country. We are remembering those moments when we won medals in Olympics, World Championships.
Now it seems that why did you live. Did we live so that the system should treat us like this? Dragged us and then made us the culprits. Whole day yesterday many of our women wrestlers were hiding in the fields. The oppressor wanted to get hold of the system, but he is engaged in breaking and intimidating the victimized women to end their protest. Now it seems that these medals decorated around our neck have no meaning left. We were feeling death just by thinking of returning them, but what to live even after compromising with our self respect..
