Watch: Wrestler Bajrang Punia asks Brinda Karat to leave stage at protest site
In a video shared by news agency ANI Punia can be heard saying, “We don't want the protest to take a political shape”.
Brinda Karat, a Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader, on Thursday reached Delhi's Jantar Mantar where wrestlers continued their sit-in protest for the second day demanding action against the Wrestling Federation of India chief and other officials against alleged sexual exploitation of several athletes but was asked to leave the stage by Olympian Bajrang Punia.
In a video shared by news agency ANI, Punia, a 2022 Commonwealth Games gold medalist, can be heard saying, “We don't want the protest to take a political shape”.
Wrestlers Vinesh Phogat, Sakshi Malik and Punia among others have been sitting on a silent protest at Jantar Mantar for the second day.
Vinesh has alleged that coaches who are favourites of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) misbehave with women and harass them. She also accused the wrestling federation chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh of sexually harassing girls and calling her a “khota sikka” after her defeat at the Tokyo Olympics 2020
Meanwhile, champion wrestler and BJP leader Babita Phogat on Thursday arrived at the protest site and assured the players that the government is with them. "I will try that their issues are resolved today," Babita Phogat said after addressing the gathering.
Brij Bhushan - a Lok Sabha MP from the BJP, rejected the allegations and said the wrestlers, who made allegations, should have approached the federation with their names earlier.
