Wrestler Bajrang Punia on Friday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said that he will return the P{adma Shri awarded to him as a mark of protest against the victory of Sanjay Singh, a loyalist of controversial BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, in the recently held Wrestling Federation of India elections.

Expressing helplessness and despair in his letter to the PM, Punia, a Commonwealth Games 2022 gold medalist and Tokyo Olympics bronze medalist, said that he can’t live his life as a Padma Shri awardee while our women wrestlers are insulted.

But even after three months, there was no FIR against Brij Bhushan. So we took to the streets in April again so that the Delhi police would at least file an FIR against him. There were 19 complainants in January but the number came down to 7 by April. This means Brij Bhushan exerted his influence and forced the other 12 wrestlers to leave their protests.

Our protest went on for 40 days. There was much pressure on us during those days. Our protest site was vandalized and we were also not allowed to protest any more. We did not know what to do next so we went to immerse our medals in the Ganga. Then we were stopped by the farmer leaders and coaches. At that time a minister from your cabinet called us up and assured us justice. We also met the Union home minister who also promised us of justice. So, we stopped our protest.

But in the election of the WFI on December 21, the federation came under Brij Bhushan once again. He himself said he would prevail over the federation like he did always. Coming under tremendous pressure, Sakshi Malik announced her retirement from wrestling.

We shed tears the entire night. We did not understand what to do, or where to go. The government has given us a lot. I was conferred with the Padma Shri in 2019. I also received the Arjuna, Khel Ratna award. When I got these awards, I was on cloud nine. But today the sadness weighs more. And the reason is a woman wrestler left the sport because of her security.

Sports have empowered our women athletes and changed their lives but the situation is such that the women who could have been the brand ambassadors of Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao are now leaving the sport. And we, the wrestlers who were ‘awarded’ could not do anything. I can’t live my life as a Padma Shri awardee while our women wrestlers are insulted. Hence I return this award to you.”

The letter came a day after Sakshi Malik, Rio Olympics bronze medalist, announced her retirement from wrestling following Singh’s election as the WFI president. “If Brij Bhushan Singh’s business partner and a close aide is elected as the president of WFI, I quit wrestling…” Malik said at a press conference in New Delhi on Thursday before storming out of the room in tears.

Fellow wrestler Vinesh Phogat said that with “Brij Bhushan’s right-hand man” now at the helm at WFI, more women wrestlers will fall prey to them. “What has happened behind closed doors will happen in the open,” Vinesh said.