Following the election of Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh's close aide Sanjay Singh as the new WFI president, World Championship medalist Vinesh Phogat returned her Khel Ratna and Arjuna Award to the government on Saturday, 30 December.
To return her awards, she attempted to reach the Prime Minister's office on Saturday but was prevented by police before reaching the PMO. Subsequently, Phogat left the awards, which were later picked up by Delhi Police, at the Kartavya Path.
Days after Olympic medalist Sakshi Malik quit wrestling and Bajrang Punia returned his Padma Shri awards, Phogat had announced her decision in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday and said:
"I am returning my Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award and the Arjuna Award. Thanks to the powerful people for pushing things to this stage."
Phogat, along with Malik and Punia had led the wrestlers' protest against Brij Bhushan since January this year, and held a press conference on 21 December following the WFI election to express their disappointment at Brij Bhushan's chosen candidates getting elected to the top posts.
In her letter to the Prime Minister, that she has posted on social media, Vinesh says she is returning her national sports awards so they "don't become a burden on us in the path of living with honor".
The wrestlers are blaming the government for not preventing a close aide of Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh from being elected as the president of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI).
In her letter, Vinesh said the Modi government had announced Sakshi Malik as the brand ambassador of the Save Girl Child campaign after she won the bronze medal in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio and now dumped her for the sake of saving Brij Bhushan, who the wrestlers allege has been sexually harassing young female wrestlers.
"The flex boards that had your fancy advertisements are old now and Sakshi has taken retirement whereas the perpetrators have maintained their reign and also announced his hegemony to the world," he wrote.
She asked the PM to take five minutes from his busy schedule and listen to the statements made to the media by Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh and his aide Sanjay Singh and he would know how they had confessed to harassing women wrestlers, she claimed.
The three renowned wrestlers along with many others had led a two-month-long protest seeking Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh's arrest before they were forcefully detained by the Delhi Police,
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