After the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president, PT Usha, labeled the ongoing protest by India’s top wrestlers as “indiscipline”, the athletes protesting at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar received a shot in the arm on Friday as the Olympic gold medallist Neeraj Chopra called for “quick action to ensure justice”.
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Chopra expressed his disappointment a day after the IOA chief came down heavily on the wrestlers for hitting the streets to resume their protests instead of approaching its athletes’ commission to lodge their complaints against the deposed Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.
Ace javelin thrower Chopra, who scripted history by winning India’s first ever gold medal in athletics at the Olympics, said “it hurts” to see the wrestlers taking to the street in search of justice.

He tweeted: “It hurts me to see our athletes on the streets demanding justice. They have worked hard to represent our great nation and make us proud. As a nation, we are responsible for safeguarding the integrity and dignity of every individual, athlete or not. What’s happening should never happen.
“This is a sensitive issue, and must be dealt with in an impartial and transparent manner. Pertaining authorities must take quick action in order to ensure that justice is served.”

The former captain of the Indian cricket team and the man who led India to winning the 1983 World Cup, Kapil Dev, had earlier put out a story on his Instagram account with an image of the protesting wrestlers and captioned it: “Will they ever get justice?”

The wrestlers have returned to protest, after they called it off earlier this year in January with the authorities promising that action will be taken after a thorough probe by the Oversight Committee into their allegations of sexual harassment by the deposed WFI president.
(With agency inputs)