As part of their ongoing protest, India's best wrestlers have postponed their intention to throw their medals into the Ganges, the nation's holy river.
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| Image Source - Google | Image by <br><a href= BBC News |
According to reports, they have now given the government five days to answer. They were supposed to hurl the medals into the river on Tuesday afternoon.
The wrestlers have been calling for the resignation and detention of the head of their federation, who they claim has harassed female wrestlers.
He has refuted the charges.
They also want to stage an ongoing hunger strike near Delhi's India Gate, a war memorial.
Our lives and souls are in these medals. We believe that wearing these medals around our necks no longer has any significance, the wrestlers stated in a statement on Tuesday.
Olympic medalists Bajrang Punia and Sakshi Malik, as well as two-time world champion Vinesh Phogat, contributed to the declaration made by the protestors.
On Tuesday in the northern Indian town of Haridwar, there were emotional scenes as the sad wrestlers gathered beside the river. However, local media said that the chairman of the powerful BKU agricultural union visited with them and persuaded them to postpone the protest.
Naresh Tikait, a union leader, was cited as stating that the government has five days to respond.
Mr. Tikait told the reporters, "Thanks to them, we hold our head high in the world sports arena.
We'll see to it that they don't have to bury their heads in shame.
The wrestlers claimed that they had first thought of giving their medals to the president and prime minister, but they were unhappy to learn that neither had talked about the protests publicly or had bothered to inquire about them.
"There would be no reason for us to exist when we dropped them [the medals] into the Ganges. Thus, the declaration said, "We will proceed to India Gate and sit on a fast till we die.
Malik, Punia, and Phogat were among several people held on Sunday as they attempted to march in protest toward India's new parliament building.
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| Image Source - Google | Image by <br><a href= BBC News |
The cops apprehended them and bussed them out of the neighborhood. The event happened a short distance from the newly opened parliament, which was being attended at the time by Mr. Modi.
The viral videos of the sportsmen being forced into buses and driven away drew outrage from prominent athletes and opposition lawmakers.
The wrestlers complained about the police action taken against them and said they were treated like "criminals" in their statement on Tuesday.
They questioned, "Have female athletes done any crime by demanding justice for the sexual misconduct perpetrated against them?
In addition to rioting charges, Delhi Police has brought cases against the wrestlers. Additionally, they cleaned up their protest area at Delhi's historic Jantar Mantar.
On April 23, the sportsmen started demonstrating against Brij Bhushan Singh, the head of the Indian wrestling organization.
The demonstrations, according to Mr. Singh, a prominent politician, and member of parliament for the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), are politically driven. The Delhi Police have questioned him, but they have not yet made an arrest.
Anurag Thakur, the sports minister, said on Monday that the wrestlers' planned protests in Delhi had not been thwarted.
Once the Delhi Police had finished their investigation, he promised that the case would receive the proper attention. Additionally, the minister urged wrestlers who hadn't yet provided police with statements to do so.
