Wrestler Vinesh Phogat returned her Arjuna and Khel Ratna awards as she left them on the court on Saturday
She was brought down on Kartavya Path in New Delhi because police prevented her from reaching Prime Minister Narendra Modi's office.
A post was shared by fellow wrestler Bajrang Punia which shows Phogat leaving with the awards before giving them back.
“May this day not come in a player’s life. “The country’s women wrestlers are in the worst phase,” the post with the video was captioned.
A few days ago, in a strongly worded open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted across her social media platforms, Phogat had announced that she would return the Khel Ratna awarded to her in 2020 along with the Arjuna Award which came earlier .
The World Cup medalist said that awards “have no meaning in my life now” and “every woman wants to live a life with respect”.
The 29-year-old's decision came just days after fellow wrestler Bajrang Punia returned his Padma Shri to oppose the election of Sanjay Kumar Singh, a close aide to BJP MP and former Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh to protest to WFI new president.
In her letter, Vinesh wrote about the time when Sakshi was appointed as one of the ambassadors of the government's 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' campaign in 2016 after she won a bronze medal at the Rio Olympics. Vinesh said the decision gave them hope and filled them with pride.
“Do female athletes exist just to appear in government advertisements? Are the protesting wrestlers traitors,” she had asked.
“Those fancy flexboards with your advertising are getting old and Sakshi is also retired now. The exploiter has also declared that his dominance will continue and has indulged in very crude slogans. Just take five minutes of your life and listen to what this man says in the media. They will know what he has done… What's worse is that he has forced many female wrestlers to regress. This is very scary,” she had said in her letter.
Vinesh said she tried to forget the entire incident but it “wasn't easy”. “Sir, our medals and awards are supposed to be worth 15 rupees, but these medals are dearer to us than our lives. When we won medals for the country, the whole country was proud of us. If we raise our voices for justice now, we will be called traitors. Are we traitors, Prime Minister?” she had asked.
Vinesh sympathized with Bajrang, who left her Padma Shri on a footpath in central Delhi after she was not allowed to hand it over to the Prime Minister in person, saying she was “suffocated inside after seeing the photo of him”.
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