Bajrang Punia wrote a letter to PM Modi returning his Padma Shri award in a protest against the election of Brij Bhushan Singh’s close aide Sanjay Singh as the chief of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI).
“I am returning my Padmashree award to the Prime Minister. This is just my letter to announce that. This is my statement,” Punia said in a post on X on Friday.
“Dear PM Ji, hope your health is well. You must be busy in many work but I am writing this to draw your attention to the wrestlers of the country. You must be aware that the women wrestlers of the country started a protest in January this year against Brish Bhushan Singh accusing him of sexual harassment. I too joined their protest. The protest stopped after the government promised strong action,” Punia wrote.
“But there was no FIR against Brij Bhushan even after three months. We again took to the streets in April so that the police at least file an FIR against him. There were 19 complainants in January but the number came down to 7 by April. This means Brij Bhushan exerted his influence on 12 women wrestlers,” he added.
“Our protest went on for 40 days. There was much pressure on us during those days…We went to immerse our medals to the Ganga River. Then we were stopped by farmer leaders. At that time a responsible minister from your cabinet called us up and assured us of justice. Meanwhile, we met Union home minister Amit Shah who too promised us of justice. We stopped our protest,” the letter read.
“But in the election of the WFI on December 21, the federation came under Brij Bhushan once again. He himself said he would prevail over the federation like he did always. Coming under tremendous pressure, Sakshi Malik announced her retirement from wrestling,” it added.
“We all spent the night in tears. We did not understand what to do, or where to go. The government has given us a lot. I was conferred with the Padma Shri in 2019. I also received the Arjuna, Khel Ratna award. When I got these awards, I was on cloud nine. But today the sadness weighs more. And the reason is a woman wrestler left the sport because of her security,” he wrote.
This came a day after wrestler Sakshi Malik hung her boots in the protest. On Thursday, Brij Bhushan Singh loyalist Sanjay Singh was elected the president of the WFI winning 13 of the 15 posts.
Sakshi Malik, Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat addressed a press conference after Sanjay Singh’s election in which Sakshi announced that she would quit the sport as a mark of protest.
