In a fresh turn of events, Indian wrestlers, who threatened to immerse their medals in river Ganga in Haridwar to protest against Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh over allegations of sexual harassment, decided not to go ahead with their plan.
According to media reports, farmer Leader Naresh Tikait, who reached Haridwar spoke to wrestlers, including Sakshi Malik, Bajrang Punia, and Vinesh Phogat and convinced them against immersing the medals in the river.
Tikait took medals, including two Olympic medals, a few Commonwealth Games and World Championship medals, which they decided to immerse in the river, from the wrestlers and sought five-day time. The wrestlers have now given a five-day ultimatum to the Centre to initiate action against the Singh, who claimed that he has not done anything wrong.
They (wrestlers) need to be practising on mats in stadiums but have been ill-treated and forced to sit at Jantar Mantar and now at sacred Ganga Ghat. Action should be taken against Brij Bhushan. We are with truth, and as farmers’ agitation had shown, sooner or later, victory will be of truth," Tikait has been quoted as saying.
The wrestlers have left the Har Ki Pauri in Haridwar where they had assembled to immerse the medals in river Ganga.
Earlier, Sakshi, bronze medallist at the 2016 Rio Olympics, had justified their decision to toss the meals into the river saying, "We have won these medals with the same purity as the holy Ganga. These medals are holy for the entire country and there can't be a better place to keep them than in the holy Ganga rather than it acting as a mask for the unholy system which is siding with the wrongdoer."
In a statement in Hindi, which she posted on her Twitter handle, she had said, "We don't want these medals now because by making us wear them this shiny system is using it as a mask for its own publicity while exploiting us. If we speak against this exploitation, it prepares to send us to jail."