Picture Credit: Twitter
Commonwealth Games gold medallist and BJP leader Babita Phogat has hit out at Olympic bronze medallist Sakshi Malik and her husband Satyawart Kadian. The wrestler couple made a video in which they claimed that it was Babita and another BJP leader Teerath Rana who had taken permission from government for the protests. However, Phogat reacted to the video and said that she did not give any signature for permitting the wrestlers to protest at Jantar Mantar.
In the video, the couple posted on Saturday, titled as ‘The Truth’, Malik and Kadian thanked Phogat for supporting the wrestlers’ protests and acting as a mediator between them and the government. However, Babita hit at Sakshi by calling her a ‘Congress Puppet', along with stressing over the fact that she was never in favour of the protests against the Wrestling Federation of India Chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh over allegations of sexual harassment.
Watch the video here:
Taking to Twitter, Phogat wrote in Hindi, “Yesterday I felt very sad and laughed too when I was watching the video of my younger sister and her husband, first of all, I want to make it clear that the permission paper which younger sister was showing did not have my signature or my name anywhere on it. There is no proof of consent and neither is it remotely my concern. Being a female player, I was, am and always will be with all the players of the country, but I was not in favour of the sit-in dharna from the beginning of the protest."
Not only this, but the 2021 World Wrestling Championship bronze medallist also said that she repeatedly told wrestlers to have faith in the judicial system of the country. Phogat said that she had told the protesting wrestlers to meet either Prime Minister Narendra Modi or Home Minister Amit Shah to find a solution.
Phogat tried to weaken our protest: Sakshi Malik
After Phogat’s sharp reaction to the video, Sakshi Malik has accused the 33-year-old wrestler and said that she tried to weaken the protest. Taking to Twitter Malik wrote, "In the video (posted on Saturday), we had taunted Teerath Rana and Babita Phogat for how they tried to use wrestlers for their selfishness and how when the wrestlers were in trouble, they went and sat on the government's lap.” Malik added, “We are definitely in trouble, but our sense of humour should not become so weak that we cannot laugh at the jokes of the powerful.”
Notably, the wrestlers had assured the government to halt their stage protests till June 15 after their meeting with the Sports Minister Anurag Thakur.
