Expressing deep anguish and sorrow over the callous attitude of the Union Government due to which wrestlers have been forced to immerse their medals in Ganga river, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Tuesday slammed the Narendra Modi led Central Government for ignoring the wrestlers’ genuine demands.
 
“These wrestlers have given their sweat and toil for bringing the medals for the country. It is unfortunate that instead of listening to their demands, the voice of these wrestlers has been muzzled again and again by the Union Government…These wrestlers have been struggling for their legitimate rights but fed up by the Centre’s step-motherly treatment, these players have taken the decision to drown their medals,” he said.
 
He said that it would have been very hard for these players to take this decision of immersing their medals which they had won after so much commitment, perseverance, and hard work in field of sports.
 
Mann said that this is the black day for the sports, sports lovers, and sports fraternity as players have to resort to such steps to get themselves heard.
 
The Chief Minister said that if the entire country just remains a mute spectator to this unholy acts of the Modi government, “the day is not far when we have to submerse the ashes of democracy in the river”.
 
“The country should unite against the high handedness of the Union Government and rally solidly behind the players,” said Mann, adding that it is the need of hour to save the country and strengthen the ethos of democracy in it.
 
Notably, top Indian wrestlers — Sakshi Malik, Vinesh Phogat, and Bajrang Punia — along with hundreds of their supporters, reached Har ki Pauri in Uttarakhand on Tuesday to immerse their medals in the Ganga.
 
A huge crowd gathered in Har ki Pauri as the protesting wrestlers got ready to immerse their world championship and Olympic medals in the river as a mark of protest against outgoing WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh. They were eventually stopped by prominent farmers’ leader Naresh Tikait, who took away their medals, giving a five-day ultimatum to the Centre.