'It was selfish': Sakshi Malik Blames Vinesh Phogat & Bajrang Punia For Weakening Wrestlers Protest

Rio Olympics Bronze Medalist, Sakshi Malik has bluntly pointed finger at Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia for undermining the image of Wrestlers Protest, which made waves last year. According to Malik, Phogat and Punia's decision to accept exemption from the Asian Games trials last year hit the image of their protest against Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh as it made their movement seem "selfish".

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Sakshi Malik Blames Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia

Sakshi, who was one of the three prominent faces of the prolonged protest, made this statement in her recently-released book 'Witness'. She said their protest developed cracks when "people close to" Bajrang and Vinesh began to fill their minds with "greed".

The three had alleged that Sharan Singh, the former head of the Wrestling Federation of India, sexually harassed women wrestlers during his tenure. The case is still being heard in a Delhi court.

The ad-hoc committee, that took over the administration of wrestling after WFI's suspension, exempted Bajrang and Vinesh from the 2023 Asian Games trials but Sakshi decided not to seek the favour as suggested by her colleagues.

Eventually, Sakshi did not compete while Vinesh suffered an injury before the Games and Bajrang failed to win a medal in Hangzhou.

"The old way of thinking selfishly was taking over once again. The people close to Bajrang and Vinesh had started filling their minds with greed. Now they were talking about this exemption from trials for the Games," Sakshi wrote in the book co-authored with journalist Jonathan Selvaraj but did not give names of those who influenced the duo.

"...Nothing good came of Bajrang and Vinesh's decision to take the exemption...their decision badly hurt the image of our protest. It put us in a situation where many supporters started to think that we were actually in the protest for selfish reasons," the 32-year-old said.

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In the Aftermath of Protest

The protest ended after the wrestlers' march towards the new Parliament Building was halted by the Police on May 28, 2023.

Both Vinesh and Bajrang joined the Congress party before the Haryana assembly elections earlier this month. The former contested and won from the Julana constituency, while the latter was made head of the party's national farmers' unit.

Before the political plunge, Vinesh endured a heartbreaking sporting low when she was disqualified from the 50kg category Olympic finals in Paris for being 100gm overweight.

(With inputs from PTI)