New Delhi: Writing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi that her Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna and her Arjuna Award no longer mean anything to her, wrestler Vinesh Phogat said she wishes to return the medals to him.“Every woman wants to live with dignity. That is why, Mr Prime Minister, I wish to return my Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna and Arjuna Award to you – so that these prizes do not burden us on our path to living with dignity,” Phogat wrote in Hindi.Phogat and fellow wrestlers Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia were among the main faces of the protests earlier this year against former Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who is accused of sexually harassing at least seven wrestlers.Malik quit wrestling and Punia gave away his Padma Shri medal last week after Sanjay Singh, a man backed by Brij Bhushan, won elections to the WFI on Thursday (December 21).In her letter to the prime minister, Phogat referred to Malik and Punia’s decisions and said she now felt revulsed by her own awards.“I remember the year 2016, when [Malik] won an Olympic medal and the government made her the brand ambassador of [the] ‘beti bachao, beti padhao’ [campaign],” she wrote, adding that this decision had sparked celebration among woman wrestlers.“Now that [Malik] has had to quit wrestling, I am constantly reminded of the year 2016. Are we women athletes only fit to be published on the government’s advertisements?”Saying that the lives of women athletes differed from how the government’s posters depicted them to be, Phogat asked the prime minister to “take out just five minutes of [his] life” to listen to statements made in the media by “the exploiter”, a reference to Brij Bhushan.“He has likened women wrestlers to ‘Manthra’ [a deceitful character in the Ramayana], has openly confessed on TV to making women wrestlers uncomfortable and has never given up an opportunity to humiliate women athletes.“What is more serious is how many women wrestlers he has forced out. This is very appalling,” she wrote, adding to say that wrestlers were hailed for winning medals but called traitors to the nation for raising their voices.“Mr Prime Minister, I would like to ask you, are we traitors?” Phogat asked.She went on to say that while she did not know what condition Punia was in when he decided to part with his Padma Shri – India’s fourth-highest civilian award – she now felt disgusted by her own awards.“I would now like to be rid of the image of Vinesh receiving her awards, as that was a dream while what is happening to us today is the reality. I was given the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna and the Arjuna Award, which no longer mean anything in my life,” Phogat wrote.She published her letter in an X (formerly Twitter) post on Tuesday (December 26), where she also thanked the “powerful” for bringing her to her current state.Following public outrage, the sports ministry dissolved the new WFI under Sanjay Singh on Saturday (December 24), appearing to slam its lack of regard for norms and the fact that it functions out of former officer bearers who are accused of sexually harassing players.
