By Chetan Sharma
New Delhi, Jan 21 (IANS) Olympic medallist Bajrang Punia on Saturday told IANS that there will be no protest on Sunday as the wrestlers have “full trust” in the government.
“We will wait for the time given to us, the one month’s time. We will wait for justice and then decide what to do next. We have full trust in our government that justice will be done. No protest is taking place tomorrow. Nothing such is happening,” Bajrang cleared.
Late on Friday night, the aggrieved grapplers called off their protest after getting assurances from the government that their grievances would be addressed, the first step of which was the stepping aside of under-fire WFI president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.
However, on Saturday morning, sources close to wrestlers told the agency that the grapplers were unhappy with the outcome of the meeting that took place at the Union Sports Minister Anurag Thakur’s residence and they are planning to re-start their protest.
Sources had said that there is a tournament taking place in UP and Brij Bhushan is attending it, this irked the protesting wrestlers on Saturday.
Even some wrestlers are so scared that they are thinking of leaving India, sources added. But Bajrang Punia denied this development in the evening.
Earlier in the day, the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) sent a reply to the Sports Ministry, rejecting all the accusations, including that of sexual harassment, made by the top Indian wrestlers against its president Brij Bhushan.
The protesting wrestlers have accused the WFI of arbitrariness, mismanagement, misgovernance and bias in selection as harassment of wrestlers by its coaches and president.
–IANS
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