Why sports stars and celebrities gave wrestler Sakshi Malik’s wedding a miss

Rio Olympics bronze medallist Sakshi Malik married her wrestler boyfriend Satyawart Kadian at Nandal Bhawan in Rohtak on Sunday

The whole nation celebrated with Sakshi Malik when she ended the dry spell for the country at Rio Olympics by winning a bronze medal in wrestling. However, in her another big day on Sunday -- the occasion of her marriage with Satyawart Kadian -- not many showed up at the function.

Only a handful of the invited guests -- the list included Prime Minister Narendra Modi, sports minister Vijay Goel, railway minister Suresh Prabhu, sportspersons such as Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Deepa Karmakar, Deepa Malik and Bollywood celebrities such as Randeep Hooda -- showed up at Sakshi Malik’s wedding with Satyawart Kadian. (HT Photo)

Sakshi Malik married her wrestler boyfriend Satyawart Kadian at Nandal Bhawan in Rohtak, Haryana, on Sunday. The guest list for the wedding included Prime Minister Narendra Modi, sports minister Vijay Goel, railway minister Suresh Prabhu, sportspersons such as Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Deepa Karmakar, Deepa Malik and Bollywood celebrities such as Randeep Hooda.

Picture gallery| Sakshi Malik, Olympic bronze medalist, gets married to Satyawart Kadian

However, only a handful of the invited guests showed up at the wedding to bless the couple. They were former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar and Jat leader Yashpal Malik. Haryana agriculture minister OP Dhankar and opposition party, INLD’s leader Abhay Chautala, called up on her residence earlier in the day to congratulate her.

Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar and sports minister Anil Vij, who had announced a plethora of incentives for Sakshi when she returned home from Rio, skipped the function. It could be a fallout of the recent spat with Sakshi after she posted a series of tweets accusing the state government of not fulfilling its award announcements.

The government had rejected her claims, telling that a cheque for Rs 2.5 crore was presented to her the day she had landed in India.

However, many sports stars congratulated the grappler on Twitter, apologising for not making it to the wedding because of their busy schedule.

“Couldn’t make it because of the IPL camp. Wish you a life full of joy and no kushti at home,” twetted Sehwag, in his typical satirical style.

Sakshi’s mother Sudesh Malik said they had invited everyone, but had no confirmation of who all would turn up for Sakshi’s big day.