In an Instagram post on Monday, 9 August, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said, "Enough videos of phone calls, now sportspersons should get rewards as promised."
The leader accompanied his words with screenshots of a media report, as well as tweets written by Olympians, which iterated that they were not paid the rewards promised in the past.
The tweets were posted by Neeraj Chopra, the recent recipient of India's first gold medal in an athletics event at the Tokyo olympics, and Bajrang Punia, who won the bronze olympic media in wrestling.
"Please fulfil the promise you made to the players and give them their prize money so that we can divert our attention from these things, focus our full attention on the upcoming Olympics and illuminate the name of our country and state," Chopra had written in 2019.
Punia had also urged BJP minister Anil Vij to fulfil the government's promise questioning, "When you promise rewards to the players, then you show your support to the player, not any greed of money. If you can't fulfil your promise, then what should any player expect from you in future?"
Posting these tweets on Instagram, Gandhi added, "Players should get their dues along with congratulations, not cuts in the sports budget."
The remarks came after PM Modi's videos of speaking to the medal winners in the Tokyo Olympics went viral on social media.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)