New Delhi: Union minister Anurag Thakur on Thursday broke his silence on the issue of the wrestlers’ protest at Jantar Mantar, saying “for us, sport and athlete is the priority. in this, we will not do any compromise. We have never done it, will not do it in future as well.”
“If you look at the wrestlers protesting… I cancelled a tour of Himachal Pradesh to sit with them for 12 hours and talked to them! Seven hours one day and over five hours on another day. We did a press conference late in the night and formed a committee after consulting with them. They then said we should add one more person to it. We added Babita Phogat, after their recommendation. We wanted an independent probe. Anyone who wanted to speak in front of the oversight committee, was given the chance to speak. There was no restriction. The time period of the probe increased because of them, we allowed that. There were 14 meetings of oversight committee. Whatever were the major findings mentioned in the report of the committee: that there should be nishpaksh chunav in 45 days and till then there should be an ad hoc committee in charge… There will be an ICC in place, you can take your issues there,” he said.
“You can also take your issues to the police and lodge an FIR. Police has said it will do a preliminary enquiry before lodging FIR. The stance of government is clear… Modiji’s govt has always stood with players. For us, sport and athlete is the priority. in this, we will not do any compromise. We have never done it, will not do it in future as well,” Thakur added.
Star wrestlers, including World Championships medal winner Vinesh Phogat, Olympic medallists Bajrang Punia and Sakashi Malik, have made sexual harassment allegations against under-fire national federation chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh and have been sitting on an indefinite protest at Jantar Mantar.
The elite athletes resumed their agitation against the Wrestling Federation of India chief on Sunday, three months after they ended their sit-in protest following the formation of an oversight committee by the government to probe into the serious allegations.
Agencies

Press Trust of India