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Journalism of Courage
India top wrestlers like Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat were left surprised by the comments of former track and field star PT Usha, who is now the head of the Indian Olympic Association. The athletics legend had said on Thursday that the fresh protest from the wrestlers against Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh “amounted to indiscipline” and was “tarnishing image of India”.
This evoked sharp reaction from the protesting wrestlers.
“We were not expecting this from PT Usha ma’am. We thought she would stand with her fellow athletes. She’s a woman herself, so we expected her to stand with us. I’m hurt by her words. Recently, she was tweeting that there were some people trying to occupy land of her academy (the Usha School of Athletics, in Balussery, Kerala) and resorting to hooliganism there. At that time the country’s image was not getting tarnished? That was also a matter pertaining to an international athlete. We were also sad to hear of the academy incident. She’s such a big athlete, and now a Rajya Sabha MP, but even then this was happening to her. If such things can happen to a parliamentarian, we’re just ordinary athletes. What power do we have? Anything can happen to us, she should have thought of that,” asked Bajrang, a Tokyo Olympics gold medallist.
He added: “When players don’t get justice, what do you expect them to do? Only she can tell what pressure she is under that she had to lash out against other women athletes speaking up.”
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Vinesh, a World Championship medallist, said that no wrestler got a single message or phone call from Usha to enquire about their well-being.
She went on to say: “When Olympic medallists from the nation are sitting on the streets in protest, I think PT Usha ma’am should have come to us. She should have asked us why we were in tears.
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“Hum road pe nahin hain. Hum apne desh ki zameen pe hain. Yeh hamaara adhikaar hai (We’re not on the streets. We’re on the land of our country. This is our right). As citizens of a democratic nation, it is our right to protest. Until we get justice, we’ll stay here,” she added.
The wrestlers have again gone on a protest at Jantar Mantar in the capital against WFI chief Brij Bhushan accusing him of sexual harassment. When the players had first gone on protest at the end of last year, the government and sports ministry had constituted an Oversight Committee to look into the matters.
Vinesh said that the case was now in the Supreme Court and they trusted in the law.
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“Humain sirf Supreme Court pe bharosa hai. (We only trust SC). We’re waiting for justice to be done. Anyone who can do that… be it Usha or anyone else, will be God for us,” she said. “It’s not as if we didn’t reach out to her (PT Usha). I called them up on their personal numbers. No one answered my call. She has no respect for the athletes’ feelings. If she wants respect, she has to give respect in return. We are also pro athletes and she was also one. Every athlete needs to respect the other. That is my personal opinion.”
Vinesh said that the wrestlers had been waiting to hear back from the IOA for three months.
“Koi jawaab nahi aa raha tha. Abhi jaise hi hum dharne pe baithe, fatafat fatafat papers bheje hain (We were getting no answers. When we asked for a timeline for the report, we got no reply. What were they preparing for over the last three months? The Olympics? And then as soon as we sat on a protest at Jantar Mantar, there has been a flurry of documents sent across.)”
Vinesh also said that people that the government has appointed in the committee were not exactly sensitive to issues of women.
“When it’s the right time, we’ll reveal how those committee members were behaving with us. The respect and sensitivity we expect to be given to women, that was lacking.”
She went on to add: “No athlete is happy sitting on the roads. Neither do we become champions here. No one has the guts to speak against Brij Bhushan. Athletes have come up and spoken against him. We know it’ll be very difficult for us in future. The whole government is hell-bent on saving him. The IOA is also there, the sports ministry is also there as well as other federations. Woh kehte hain na sab chor ikattha hoke ek admi ko shield de rahe hain.”
