Rahul Gandhi wrestles with Punia

The meeting came a day after World Championship medallist Vinesh Phogat returned her Khel Ratna and Arjuna Award to the government in protest against Sanjay’s election.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday met Olympic bronze medallist Bajrang Punia and other wrestlers at Jhajjar in Haryana amid a row over the election of Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh loyalist Sanjay Singh as Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president Bajrang had returned his Padma Shri on Friday in protest over Sanjay’s election as president in the WFI polls last week. Gandhi, a former Congress president, met and interacted with the wrestlers at the Virendra Akhada at Jhajjar’s Chhara village where Bajrang began his journey in the sport.

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“He [Rahul Gandhi] came to see our routine [training]. He did wrestling and exercise with me. He came to see what is the day-to-day life of a wrestler,” Bajrang told reporters. The meeting came a day after World Championship medallist Vinesh Phogat returned her Khel Ratna and Arjuna Award to the government in protest against Sanjay’s election.

Gandhi asked on his social media handle whether parents will still send their children to take up wrestling if “the daughters of India” have to leave their Akhada to fight for their rights and justice on the streets. “After years of hard work, patience and unmatched discipline, and shedding blood and sweat, a player brings a medal for his or her country,” Gandhi wrote on ‘X’.

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