Bajrang Punia, Vinesh Phogat and Sakshi Malik specific shock over IOA chief PT Usha’s assertion | Extra sports activities Information – Instances of India

NEW DELHI: Indian Olympic Affiliation’s (IOA) president P T Usha, a celebrated observe and area athlete with over 100 medals at nationwide and worldwide occasions, on Thursday, criticised the wrestlers for going public with their protest demanding submitting of an FIR and arrest of sidelined Wrestling Federation of India’s (WFI) president, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.
Usha stated the sit-in agitation by wrestlers at Jantar Mantar has introduced dangerous publicity to the nation. They need to have first approached the IOA’s Athletes Fee with their grievance earlier than staging a protest, which entered its fifth day on Thursday, she stated. Usha additionally referred to as for the wrestlers to be “disciplined”.

“IOA has an athletes commission in place. Instead of hitting the streets, these wrestlers should’ve come to us. The athletes should be disciplined. If their problems were real, they should’ve come to our athletes commission. What they are doing is not good for the image of the country. Hitting the streets is not good for Indian sports,” Usha instructed reporters after the IOA’s government committee (EC) assembly right here, which mentioned the wrestlers’ protest and determined to kind a three-member ad-hoc committee to run the WFI’s day-to-day affairs and maintain its elections inside 45 days of the formation of the physique.

Usha expressed her disappointment over the wrestlers’ try to provide the agitation a political color. “Those protesting are renowned wrestlers who brought laurels to the country. They have an equal responsibility of safeguarding the interest of our sports and sportspersons and also the image of our country. However, they are sitting on dharna, asking all political parties to join them etc, is what disappoints me,” Usha added.
Shocked by her feedback, the protesting wrestlers, led by Olympians Bajrang Punia, Vinesh Phogat and Sakshi Malik, hit again at Usha, demanding respect for his or her motion to guard the longer term technology of feminine wrestlers from dealing with sexual harassment.

“I am deeply shocked to hear such comments from a legendary athlete like Usha mam. We grew up idolising her and respecting her achievements. She was a role model to us. She has herself been a female athlete with such a distinguished career. How can she not understand the plight of female sportspersons who have been demanding justice and spending nights in the open sky. If she can’t respect our sentiments, we shouldn’t be respecting her. If she wants respect from us, she should also show respect towards the wrestlers’ cause. Her comment today has deeply disturbed me. It’s not like we didn’t try calling her up. I called her up on her personal number. She didn’t answer my call. She doesn’t have respect for athletes’ feelings,” stated Vinesh.

Bajrang stated, “Recently, Usha mam had tweeted that some people tried to illegally occupy her academy land by resorting to hooliganism. Tell me, wasn’t the nation’s image getting tarnished that time?” If being a Rajya Sabha MP nominated on the BJP ticket, she will’t save her academy land, how might you anticipate regular wrestlers like us to wage and win a combat towards (Brij Bhushan) Singh. Usha mam has dissatisfied our entire neighborhood together with her assertion.”
Earlier, IOA’s joint secretary and appearing CEO, Kalyan Chaubey, additionally slammed the wrestlers for protesting on the streets. “We are yet to get a report from our (seven-member fact-finding) committee. But these protests are not good for the image of the country. We are the fifth largest economy in the world and sport is a medium through which you reach all parts of the world. This protest is not helping India as a nation. In this day and age of social media, imagine what this does to a country’s image? You’re not fighting against one federation or its president, you’re hurting the nation’s image.”

We gave each protesting athlete to current their case: Thakur
Union sports activities minister Anurag Singh Thakur spoke on the wrestlers’ present protest for the primary time on Thursday. He stated the welfare of sports activities and athletes has all the time been a precedence for this authorities. “A few wrestlers are protesting at Jantar Mantar. I had spent 12 hours with them — seven hours on the first day and five hours the next day (in January). I had listened to all their grievances, held a press conference at 2-2.30 at night, formed a committee after talking to them. They had asked to add a member and gave Babita Phogat’s name, and we added her to the committee. We wanted an impartial probe,” Thakur stated at a press convention in Shimla.
“Whoever wanted to present their version before the oversight committee, was given a chance to do so, there were no restrictions. We even increased the timeline of the probe, there were 14 meetings. Whoever wanted to come, came. We gave a chance to every athlete to present his/her case,” he added.