Indian wrestler Vinesh Phogat, who recently retired from wrestling after being disqualified in the Paris 2024 Olympics, said she ignored a call from Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The present Congress contestant, in coming Assembly polls from Julana’s seat alleged she declined to talk to her because she did not wish to allow her emotions and hardwork doing rounds in the social media platform to be exploited during the ongoing political process.
During a telephonic interaction with the PTI news agency, Phogat said, “The call was from the Prime Minister, but I did not utter a word. It was not a direct call to me, however. The accompanying Indian officials told me that PM Modi intended to speak and, to begin with, I was prepared. However, they placed conditions: Naturally, no one from my team would be allowed on the call, and two of their people would take a video of the conversation for social media.”
‘I didn’t want my emotions and hard work to be treated lightly on the social media platforms,’ Phogat reiterated the imposed conditions she was unhappy with. “If the Prime Minster wanted to speak to athletes, he could have done so without broadcasting it. That would have been welcome from her. It is somewhat similar as people tend to talk, but they do not stand for you.”
Vinesh Phogat further opined that the conditions were put in place in a bid to dampen her free speech, continuing, “Maybe they knew that if I spoke, I would raise issues on the last one and two years. Maybe that’s why they wanted to limit what I could tell: Someone who left home and wanted to come back but could not because everything was on fire. They can make those adjustments on their end, but I wouldn’t. I would show the raw one, so they turned it down.” The incident reveals how Phogat feels about the situation where struggling athletes’ plight is politicized, especially when they are at their weakest.
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