As the wrestlers’ protest at Jantar Mantar led by the nation’s top grapplers moved into its second week, Olympic medallist Bajrang Punia said that it is more important for the female wrestlers to get justice than to go to Asian Games.
“We want to play, it’s not as if we don’t want to go to the Asian Games. But I believe that gaining justice for the daughters of this country is far more important than an Asian medal," Bajrang asserted.
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The Asian Games are scheduled to take place in September this year and under normal circumstances, this point in time would have ideally been allocated for the grapplers to dedicate towards training.
Bajrang and Vinesh Phogat, who were given the go-ahead by the sports ministry earlier for overseas training camp ahead of the Asiad said that they would refrain from the same citing the current conditions.
Bajrang added that he wasn’t pleased with some media taking the side of the WFI president, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, accused of sexual harassment, stating that some have been trying to give the protest a different angle.
“Look at his criminal record, there’s no questions over that. When we get medals for the country, questions are asked over that," he added.
“Few people are trying to take this protest in another direction, making it political."
Bajrang also hit back at talks that the wrestlers were staging the protest to take control of the federation.
“He (Brijbhushan) has been talking about how we are sitting here and fighting this fight because we want to take control of the federation. If you want to become the president of the federation or want any post in it, you need to have a post in a state wrestling federation," Bajrang explained.
Brij Bhushan, who had earlier mentioned that he was filling in the role of the president until a new chief could be determined in the elections for the same.
“He has been saying that he will not fight another election or come back, but he has completed 12 years so he anyway can’t."
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The 26-year-old grappler also shed some light on how Brij Bhushan was trying to exert his influence on the federation through members of his family.
Brij Bhushan’s son, Karan Bhushan Sharan Singh, has been the vice president of the WFI and senior vice president of the Uttar Pradesh Wrestling Association.
“His family have been controlling wrestling in UP and Bihar. He has accused us of ‘pariwaarvad’ but it is actually him engaging in it."
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