(NOTE: This is a reprint of a short story published in the June 26, 2023 edition of India Today)
Time can grind down even the strongest. Olympic medallists Bajrang Punia and Sakshi Malik and Asian Games gold medallist Vinesh Phogat might have trained to be fighters nearly all their lives but, on May 30, standing on the banks of the Ganga at Har ki Pauri in Haridwar, for the first time, the fight went out of them. Shielded by a human chain of family members and friends, they wept, clutching a bounty of hard-earned medals—two Olympic, six World Championship and four Asian Games between the three— their “life and soul”, as they called them.
They intended to immerse them in the sacred river. Just two days ago, they were expelled from the streets of New Delhi, mistreated by the Delhi police and were now the subject of legal proceedings brought against them for assaulting female police officers. . ” How did this happen?” Vinesh, world number one in his category in 2021, has been heard continually asking Haridwar. The 28-year-old may simply not perceive how a protest is organized to bring sexual harassment allegations against the president of the Indian Wrestling Federation (WFI), Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who is also a BJP MP for Kaiserganj, Uttar Pradesh, had resulted in assault allegations opposed to her.
It was a fight they had vastly underestimated. In the last six months, they have lost not only the well-being of a large part of their circle of family and friends, but also time for education and a very important physical condition. The next Asiad, scheduled for later this year in the Chinese city of Hangzhou, is now too far away, as is the World Cup in Belgrade. Lately they have experienced the hostility of a part of the Indian public which has hitherto lavished no adulation on them. Professional contracts have become miserable.