Wrestlers reached Haridwar shedding their medals in the Ganges
The country’s top wrestlers, including Sakshi Malik, Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia, on Tuesday shed their medals in the river Ganga along with hundreds of supporters to reach ‘Har Ki Pauri’ where police tightened security. A large crowd gathered at ‘Har Ki Pauri’ as the performing wrestlers prepared to throw their world and Olympic medals into the river Ganges. Sakshi, Vinesh and their cousin Sangeeta Subakti appeared and their husbands were trying to console them. His supporters had formed a circle around him. The wrestlers stood silently for about 20 minutes after reaching ‘Har Ki Pauri’.
Then he sat down on the bank of river Ganga with his medal in hand. The country’s top wrestlers, who were detained by the Delhi Police on May 28 and removed from the protest site at Jantar Mantar, on Tuesday said they will throw their hard-won medals in the river Ganges and go on a ‘fast unto death’ at India Gate. Will sit However, Delhi Police on Tuesday said that they will not allow them to protest at India Gate as it is a national monument and not a place to protest. Earlier, Rio Olympics 2016 bronze medalist Sakshi Malik said in a statement on her Twitter handle that the wrestlers will go to Haridwar on Tuesday at 6 pm to immerse the medals in the holy river.
Sakshi said in the statement, “The medals are our life, our soul. We are going to shed them in the Ganga because she is Ganga Maa. There will be no meaning for us to live after they flow into the Ganges, so we will sit on a fast unto death at India Gate. Sakshi’s fellow wrestler Vinesh Phogat also shared this statement. Tuesday is Ganga Dussehra in Haridwar and is likely to be a day when a large number of people will come there to offer prayers. Sakshi said, “As sacred as we consider Ganga to be, we had earned these medals by working hard. These medals are sacred to the entire country and the right place to keep the sacred medal can be the holy Mother Ganga and not our unholy system which stands with our oppressor after taking advantage of us by masking us.
He said, “India Gate is the place of our martyrs who sacrificed their lives for the country. We are not as pious as them, but our spirit while playing at the international level was like that of those soldiers.” Sakshi said that instead of catching the oppressor, the system tried to intimidate the victims and prevent protests. The wrestlers feel that the medals have no value and want to return them. He wished that President Draupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi would have resolved the issue. Sakshi said, “We don’t need these medals anymore because by wearing them, this system only propagates itself by making us a mask and then exploits us. If we speak against that exploitation, he prepares to put us in jail.
Delhi Police on Sunday detained World Championships bronze winner Vinesh Phogat and another Olympic medalist Bajrang Punia along with Sakshi and later registered an FIR against them for violation of law and order. Olympic and world championship medalists were forcefully herded into a bus by the Delhi Police at Jantar Mantar after wrestlers and their supporters tried to breach the security cordon and march towards the new Parliament House for a women’s ‘mahapanchayat’ on Sunday. The wrestlers were not allowed to march towards the new Parliament building. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was to inaugurate it on the same day and when the police stopped the wrestlers and their supporters, there was a scuffle between them.
The protesting wrestlers and their supporters were taken to various places in the national capital and later released. After putting the wrestlers in the buses, the police officials removed the cots, mattresses, coolers, fans and tarpaulin roof and other items present at the picket site. Sakshi said that women wrestlers feel that there is nothing left for them 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.
Sakshi said, “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 an FIR was lodged against us in serious cases. have committed a crime. The police and machinery are treating us like criminals. When the real oppressor is cracking down on us. By confessing the uncomfortable incidents of female wrestlers on TV, he is turning them into laughter.
