Wrestling
PT Usha, heckled by crowd, meets protesting wrestlers
PT Usha, who is the IOA President, met the protesting wrestlers days after they lashed out at her for calling them 'indisciplined'.
PT Usha meets protesting wrestlers in New Delhi on Wednesday (Sushil Kumar Verma)
PT Usha was heckled by a crowd on Wednesday as she went to meet the wrestlers protesting at the Jantar Mantar site.
PT Usha is a Rajya Sabha member nominated by the Narendra Modi-led BJP government as well as the Indian Olympic Association's (IOA) president. She went to meet the wrestlers who have been protesting without rest for the last 11 days.
India's top wrestlers - including Bajrang Punia, Vinesh Phogat and Sakshi Malik - are on protest against Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who according to them, has sexually harassed several women players.
“She (PT Usha) said that she is standing with us and will get us justice and that she is an athlete first and then anything else,” wrestler Bajrang Punia told ANI after meeting the IOA president.
“She said that she will look into our issue and resolve it as early as possible. We will remain here till Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh goes to jail," Bajrang added.
As Usha made her visit on Wednesday, her car was stopped multiple times and she was confronted by an angry mob. Some suggested that she should not be allowed to meet the wrestlers as she was 11 days too late.
Usha had recently criticised the wrestlers for spoiling the image of the country by sitting on dharna.
"We are much better than people like PT Usha and Mary Kom. If former athletes such as them can't support us, it's a matter of shame. Such adversities give us strength. We don't want them to sit here with us. We just want them to be truthful and support us," Sakshi, 2016 Rio Olympics bronze medallist, said on Tuesday.
"They (politicians) are not even faithful to their father, mother, husband or spouse and these people (Usha and Mary Kom) have proved that to me. These are the people I grew up watching and aspired to become like them. But I have learnt my lessons the hard way," she had said.
This came after PT Usha had reacted to the protest with these damning words: “This kind of agitation is not good for the country’s image and amounts to indiscipline. This negative publicity is not good for the country."
