The best wrestlers in India, who were recently detained and relocated from their protest location at Jantar Mantar in Delhi, have declared that they will immerse their medals in the Ganges River in Haridwar on Tuesday before going on an extended hunger strike at India Gate.
Sakshee Malikkh, Bajrang Punia, and Sangeeta Phogat, among other wrestlers, released a statement on their separate Twitter accounts announcing that they would travel to Haridwar at 6 pm and dip their medals in the Ganga river.
"These medals represent our spirits and our life. After submerging them in the Ganga today, there would be no incentive to continue living. After that, we will hold a hunger strike at India Gate until we die," the Hindi statement said.
Since April 23, wrestlers have been demonstrating against Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, the president of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI), after claims that he sexually harassed female athletes, including a minor.
On May 28, as hundreds of law enforcement and paramilitary troops obstructed the wrestlers' protest march toward Parliament House, dramatic images were captured. A violent altercation between wrestlers and police officers occurred as the demonstrators attempted to break through the security perimeter.
The wrestlers claimed in the joint statement that the Prime Minister, "who calls us our daughters," never once expressed concern for the grapplers. Instead, he welcomed the 'oppressor' (Brij Bhushan Singh) to the opening of the new Parliament building. He even posed for pictures wearing all-white clothing. This brilliance has tarnished us," it declared.
"Where is the place for the daughters of India?" read the statement. Do we have a plan to take over the government or are we just folks who engage in sloganeering?
"We'll submerge these medals in the Ganga River... The more sacred the Ganga is to us, the more sacred it is for us to have worked so hard to earn these medals. The Ganga should be the proper location for these medals because they are sacred to the entire nation, it stated.
On the day of the opening of the new Parliament building, the protest that began on April 23 at Jantar Mantar produced tragic visuals when Delhi Police cracked down on them in the middle of their march. Due to the wrestlers' protest march to the new Parliament building, an FIR was filed against them with the claim that it would damage "national prestige".
The wrestlers, who started their sit-in in January and restarted it last month, have been calling for the arrest of Brij Bhushan Singh, a BJP MP from Kaisarganj in Uttar Pradesh.
Rahul Gandhi of the Congress, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Arvind Kejriwal of Delhi, and Mamata Banerjee of West Bengal have all criticized the Centre for doing little to stop Brij Bhushan Singh.
