Medal-winning Indian wrestler Bajrang Punia on Friday, 22 December, returned the Padma Shri that he had received in an act of protest against the appointment of Sanjay Singh as the chief of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI).
Earlier that day, Punia had announced on social media that he would be returning the award to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. While making his way to the PM's New Delhi residence, Punia was stopped by the Delhi Police and instead decided to leave the Padma Shri on the footpath near the premises, according to Times of India.
“I am returning my Padma Shri award to the Prime Minister. This is a letter to say that, this is my statement” Punia had written on X.
“Dear Prime Minister ji, I hope everything is going well for you. I know you have a lot on your plate, but I wanted to write to let you know of the situation facing the nation's wrestlers. You must be aware that the nation's female wrestlers began a protest against Brij Bhushan Singh in January of this year, claiming that he had harassed them sexually. I had joined them in protest as well. After the administration vowed tough action, the protest ended,” the Commonwealth Games medal winning wrestler said.
"However, no FIR was filed against Brij Bhushan even after three months. In April, we decided to retake the streets in hopes that the Delhi police would at least register a formal complaint against him. January saw 19 complainants; by April, that number dropped to 7. This indicates that the other 12 wrestlers were compelled to end their protests by Brij Bhushan using his power," he added.
This comes after close aide to Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, Sanjay Singh, was elected as the new President of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) on Thursday, 21 December, defeating wrestler Anita Sheoran by a margin of 40–7.
On the same evening, wrestler Sakshi Malik vowed to quit wrestling upon Singh's appointment as the chief official of the federation.
"We fought wholeheartedly. If the President is someone like Brij Bhushan, somebody who is his business partner and his right-hand man, then I'll quit wrestling," said the Rio Olympics bronze medalist in a press conference in New Delhi.
"We slept for 40 days on the roads. I would like to thank the innumerable people of our country who came to support us during the protests earlier this year. We wanted a female president, but that did not happen," she added.
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