Sports Ministry to Persuade Bajrang Punia to Reverse His Decision to Return Padma Shri: Report

The Sports Ministry will try to persuade Bajrang Punia to reverse his big decision to return the Padma Shri award. The ace grappler took the big call on Friday as he posted a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on social media platform X and announced that he will return the Padma Shri honour after Sanjay Singh won the WFI elections and took the over the charge as president.

After his decision, sources from the sports ministry told news agency PTI that they would talk with Bajrang and try to persuade him to reverse it.

“We will still try to persuade Bajrang to reverse his decision to return Padma Shri,” Sports Ministry sources told PTI

“It is Bajrang Punia’s personal decision to return Padma Shri. The WFI polls were held in fair and democratic manner,”Sports Ministry sources added.

On Thursday, Sanjay was elected as the president of the WFI after the panel led by the close aide of Brij Bhushan won 13 of the 15 posts.

Meanwhile, in a letter addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bajrang wrote: “Dear PM Ji, hope your health is well. You must be busy in many work but I am writing this to draw your attention to the wrestlers of the country.

“You must be aware that the women wrestlers of the country started a protest in January this year against Brij Bhushan Singh accusing him of sexual harassment. I too joined their protest. The protest stopped after the government promised strong action.”

Expressing his disappointment, the star wrestler added, “But there was no FIR against Brij Bhushan even after three months. We again took to the streets in April so that the police 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 on 12 women wrestlers.”

Earlier, Sakshi Malik announced her retirement from wrestling on Thursday and stated that she won’t compete under the presidency of Brij Bhushan loyalist.

She took the massive decision after Sanjay Singh’s victory in the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) presidential elections.

Sakshi removed her shoes and put them on the dais before leaving the press conference in tears.