Protesting Wrestlers to Immerse Their Medals in River Ganga in Haridwar

New Delhi: India’s top wrestlers, protesting against BJP MP and chief of Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, on Tuesday declared that they will “immerse” their medals in the Ganga river at the holy city Haridwar in Uttarakhand.

They allege that the WFI chief has sexually harassed several women wrestlers, including a minor. , as they feel it has “no meaning” anymore, and is only being used as a “mask” for propaganda by the system.

Through a letter tweeted in Hindi, the agitating top grapplers Sakshee Malikkh, Vinesh Phogat, and Bajrang Punia said, “…it seems that these medals decorated around our necks have no meaning anymore. It was killing me just thinking of returning them, but what use is a life lived compromising on your self-respect.”

The letter said they wondered who they’d return the medals to. “The President, who is a woman herself, sat barely two kilometers away and watched. She didn’t say anything,” it said, on why they didn’t feel like returning it to her.

“To our Prime Minister, who used to call us daughters? We didn’t feel like it because he didn’t ask about these daughters even once. Instead, our oppressor was at the inauguration of the new parliament building in dazzling white clothes, getting pictures clicked. This white was stinging us as if it was saying ‘I am the system’,” the letter, further said.

“We don’t need these medals anymore because this system does its own propaganda by hanging them around our necks and putting a mask on us, it said.