In an intense turn of events two days after their eviction from Jantar Mantar, the protesting wrestlers, who on May 30 gathered at Haridwar’s Har Ki Pauri to drop all their medals in the river Ganga, were stopped by farmer leader Naresh Tikait who took the medals away and bought five days of time from the grapplers.
Emotional scenes were witnessed in Haridwar as India’s top wrestlers, including Sakshi Malik, Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia, reached there along with supporters in the evening and sat at Ganga Ghat for more than an hour with their medals in the hands and tears in the eyes.
Earlier in the day, the protesting wrestlers released a statement announcing that they are going to drop their medals in the Ganga in their protest against Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president and BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who has been accused of sexual harassment.
They also said that they will begin an amaran anshan (indefinite hunger strike) at Delhi’s India Gate after giving away their medals.
Their attempt was, however, stopped after Mr. Tikait, president, Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), arrived at Haridwar along with BKU volunteers and took the medal from the wrestlers and sought five days of time from them.
The wrestlers later gave a five-day ultimatum to the government to take action in the matter.
Meanwhile, police sources in Delhi said the wrestlers won’t be allowed to shift their sit-in to India Gate as the national monument was not a site for demonstrations and alternative places for their dharna will be suggested.
The wrestlers, who were removed by the Delhi Police from their Jantar Mantar protest site on May 28, had said they would drop their medals in the Ganga and sit on a hunger strike “until death” at the India Gate.
“India Gate is not a protest site and we will not allow them (wrestlers) to protest there,” a police source said.
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“They have not approached us till now with any such request. If they want to protest, they will have to submit a written communication to the DCP concerned, following which a call will be taken accordingly,” he said.
The Delhi Police will suggest alternative sites that are designated for protests such as Ramleela Ground and Burari, the source added.
On Monday, the police said they would not be allowed to protest at Jantar Mantar.
The wrestlers had been protesting at Jantar Mantar since April 23 against Wrestling Federation of India chief and BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, accusing him of sexually harassing women grapplers.
Will sit on fast unto death at India Gate, medals to be dropped in Ganga, says Sakshi
Two days after the Delhi Police forcibly removed the wrestlers and cleared their protest site at Jantar Mantar, wrestler Sakshi Malik announced that the wrestlers will now sit on a “fast unto death at India Gate”. Malik also said that the protestors will be consigning their medals to the river Ganga. The medals will be immersed at 6 p.m. today at Haridwar.
On Sunday, India’s top wrestlers, including Vinesh Phogat, Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia, who were living in makeshift tents at New Delhi’s Jantar Mantar for nearly 35 days to protest against Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh who is accused of sexual harassment, were detained by security personnel as they tried to march to the new Parliament building during its inauguration.
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Citing Sunday’s action, Malik wrote in a post on Twitter, “Have women wrestlers committed any crime by demanding justice for the sexual harassment that happened to them? The police and the system are treating us like criminals, while the oppressor is cracking down on us in open meetings…He is even openly talking about changing the POCSO Act. We women wrestlers are feeling that we have nothing left in this country.”
“We are remembering those moments when we won medals in Olympics, World Championships. Now we are questioning why we even won those in the first place. Did we win so that the system behaves badly with us? Drag us and then make us the culprits?,” Malik added.
Wrestlers Vinesh Phogat, Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia along with other protesters were booked for rioting and obstructing public servant in discharge of duty on May 28 after a scuffle with security personnel who tried to stop them from marching to the new Parliament building as it was being inaugurated. Soon after, the Delhi Police cleared the site of their over-month-long sit-in at Jantar Mantar and said they would not be allowed to return there.
On Monday, Sakshi Malik said that the wrestlers and organisers had regrouped and held meetings throughout to work on the future strategy
“We will sit on fast unto death at India Gate,” Malik said on Twitter today. “India Gate is the place of our martyrs who sacrificed their lives for the country. We are not as holy as our martyrs, but while playing at the international level, our feelings were also like those soldiers,” she added.
‘We don’t need these medals anymore’
Malik also addressed the medals won over the years by wrestlers who are now sitting in protest against WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, saying that the medals decorating their necks had no meaning now.
“The question came as to whom to return [the medals to],” Malik said.
In her post Malik came down heavily on President Droupadi Murmu as well as Prime Minister Narendra Modi. She went on to say that the wrestlers did not feel comfortable returning the medals to Ms. Murmu as the President “who herself is a woman… just kept watching, sitting just two kilometres away from us, but did not say anything.”
Referring to the Prime Minister, Malik said that Mr. Modi had once called them “daughters of his house.” However, the wrestlers were against returning the medals to him, “because even once he did not take care of the daughters of his house. Rather, our tyrant was invited to the inauguration of the new Parliament and he was posing for photos in bright white clothes. Its whiteness was stinging us. As if you are saying that I am the system.”
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“Where is our place in this shining system, where is the place of daughters of India? Have we become mere slogans or just an agenda to come to power? We don’t need these medals anymore because by wearing them, this system only does its propaganda… and then exploits us. If we speak against that exploitation, then he prepares to put us in jail,” she added.
Malik said that the medals would be consigned to the river Ganga at 6 p.m. today in Haridwar. “We are going to shed these medals in the Ganga, because she is the mother Ganga. These medals are sacred for the whole country and the right place to keep the sacred medal can be holy Mother Ganga and not our unholy system which stands with our oppressor after taking advantage of us.”
(With and PTI inputs)
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