Olympic medalist Sakshi Malik and her husband, wrestler Satyawart Kadian, released a video on Saturday in which they responded to the accusations leveled against the wrestlers and revealed the "truth" regarding their protest against Wrestling Federation of India outgoing chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh. A group of wrestlers led by Bajrang Punia, Vinesh Phogat, and Malikkh started their sit-in protest at Delhi's Jantar Mantar over two months prior to the release of their video.
Kadian began by refuting the first charge that their protest is driven by politics and orchestrated by Congress in the video titled "The Truth." In the video, he claimed that they had obtained approval from two BJP leaders, Tirath Rana and Babita Phogat, for their three-day sit-in protest in January at Delhi's Jantar.
Kadian stated:
"Many individuals within the wrestling community wanted to raise their voices against the problems but lacked unity and feared negative consequences for their careers. Our fight is not against the government but specifically against Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who has been accused of multiple sexual misconduct incidents with seven wrestlers."
Responding to the question of why they remained silent for such a long period, Sakshi Malik said that the 'lack of unity within the federation made it difficult to address the issue'. "There was fear for the safety of a minor child and her family, and this pressure was the second challenge for us."
"The minor wrestler changed her statement because her family was threatened," Sakshi Malik said.
Explaining the move to immerse the medals in the Ganga river, Kadian said the events of May 28th shattered them to no end. He said in this regard:
"The May 28 incident deeply affected us. Our pride and reputation were tarnished, and we were unable to respond to the incident… As a result, we decided to immerse their medals in the Ganga as a symbolic gesture."
"Immersing their medals could have sparked violence on the spot" - Satyavart Kadian
The experienced athlete explained that discarding their medals in the river would have sparked massive outrage; hence, they chose to deal with it maturely by meeting Home Minister Amit Shah. He added:
"Bajrang was made to wait and we encountered delays and it ultimately led to a situation where immersing their medals could have sparked violence on the spot. We were already shattered from all that had happened and due to our poor mental state, we couldn’t even fully understand the unfolding events. We are not experienced agitators, we couldn’t have anticipated how politics would play out in such situations After the incident, we felt lost and unsure about who was genuinely on their side…we were then advised to meet Home Minister Amit Shah, which we did to present our side of the story."
Towards the end of the 11-minute long video, the couple requested not to believe in any rumours and apologized for any mistakes they did.
