Vinesh Phogat returned her Khel Ratna and Arjun Award!

Female wrestler Vinesh Phogat has returned her awards. She also tried to reach the Prime Minister’s Office, but Delhi Police has stopped her. She decided to write an open letter to the Prime Minister. She wants to return Major Dhyanchand Khel Ratna and Arjuna Award.  Vinesh Phogat kept both awards on the duty path in Delhi from Saturday night.

“These awards no longer have any meaning in my life,” she said!

Vinesh Phogat won gold medals in Asian Games and Commonwealth Games. But she wrote an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday this week. In that letter she said that she want to return those medal. This happened after Sakshee Malikkh said she was retiring from wrestling and Bajrang Punia returned his Padma Shri. 

यह दिन किसी खिलाड़ी के जीवन में न आए। देश की महिला पहलवान सबसे बुरे दौर से गुज़र रही हैं। #vineshphogat pic.twitter.com/bT3pQngUuI

— Bajrang Punia 🇮🇳 (@BajrangPunia) December 30, 2023

But what is the reason behind all that? The actual reason is, These three wrestlers were at the forefront of the protests, that was done against then Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh. This BJP MP, Mohan had been accused of sexual harassment by several women wrestlers. 

The open letter that she posted on X, asking if women wrestlers were made only to grace government advertisements. Then she said on that letter that she was returning the Khel Ratna and Arjuna Award so that they don’t become a “burden on the path of living with dignity”. The World Championship medallist Vinesh Phogat has said that awards “have no meaning in my life now” because “every woman wants to live life with respect”, so does she.