New Delhi: Rahul Gandhi interacted with wrestlers including Bajrang and Deepak Punia during his visit to the Virender Arya Akhara in Chhara village of Haryana’s Jhajjar district on Wednesday.
The Congress MP also had a wrestling ‘match’ with Olympic medallist Bajrang Punia, the man who was a prominent face in female wrestlers’ months-long protest against former Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president Brij Bhushan Sharn Singh.
Rahul shared pictures from his visit, including his duel with Bajrang.
In the end, the politician got pinned by the champion wrestler, as the pictures show.
The Congress leader waded into the controversy, taking the side of wrestlers.
The government suspended the WFI soon after Brij Bhushan’s close aide Sanjay Singh was elected as the new president. Singh beat Anita Sheoran, a former wrestler, by 40 votes to 7, but the wrestlers were so upset with the result that Sakshi Malik quit the sport and others like Bajrang returned their government awards.
“There is only one question — if these players, the daughters of India, have to leave the fight in their arena and fight for their rights and justice on the streets, then who will encourage their children to choose this path? These are innocent, straightforward and simple people from farmer families. Let them serve the tricolour. Let them make India proud with full honour and respect,” Rahul wrote on X.
Olympic Bronze medallist Sakshee Malik quit wrestling in protest against the row.
वर्षों की जीतोड़ मेहनत, धैर्य एवं अप्रतिम अनुशासन के साथ अपने खून और पसीने से मिट्टी को सींच कर एक खिलाड़ी अपने देश के लिए मेडल लाता है।
आज झज्जर के छारा गांव में भाई विरेंद्र आर्य के अखाड़े पहुंच कर ओलंपिक पदक विजेता बजरंग पूनिया समेत अन्य पहलवान भाइयों के साथ चर्चा की।
सवाल… pic.twitter.com/IeGOebvRl6
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) December 27, 2023
“He came to see how the daily life of a wrestler goes. He wrestled and exercised with me. He also made videos of his visit to the arena,” Bajrang told India Today.
