Skip to main content

Mission Rio16: Gujarat NGO to file PIL against official apathy to Deaflympics wrestling gold medallist

By Our Representative
Top Gujarat-based cultural NGO Drishti, which takes up social issues to fight for the underprivileged through digital visual media, has declared that it will file a public interest litigation (PIL) in Delhi High Court against official indifference towards Virender Singh, the deaf wrestler who won gold medal at the Deaflympics in Sofia, Bulgaria, in August 2013 in the men’s 74 kg freestyle event. He won the coveted medal defeating Oguz Donder of Turkey. The announcement came at the film release ceremony of 58-minute documentary, produced by Drishti, on the top wrestler, who has received no official help so far.
Addressing the audience at Natarani theatre, where it was screened, directors Mit Jani, Prateek Gupta and Vivek Chaudhary said, during an earlier meeting with Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had promised Singh would would be awarded Rs 5 crore by the state government in case he won a medal at Sofia, in accordance with the norm for other "normal" athletes. "However, nothing has happened thereafter. After he won the medal, all that Hooda has been saying is, Singh will be rewarded in accordance with the existing rules. We are keeping our fingers crossed", the directors asserted.
"Our mission s to fulfill Singh's dream to make it to the forthcoming Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2016. We call it Mission Rio16", the directors said. "We are fighting against Indian official norms which do not support a deaf athlete to go Olympics. This is against Olympic rules, where there is no such restriction." The film cites several differently abled athletes from other countries who have won medals, including gold, at Olympics. "Here is a man who is capable of fighting for India, but officials are indifference. In fact, he was about to be eased out of Sofia Deaflympics due to an internal fight", they added.
The film reveals that Singh was trained with Olympic silver medallist Sushil Kumar and bronze medallist Yogeshwar Dutt, and quotes his coach as saying that he is "equal to them". Sushil Kumar, who agrees to the view, has also been shown as regretting poor treatment meted out to the athlete by the officialdom, which is quoted as saying that Singh cannot participate in normal Olympics as "he cannot listen to the whistle, which is the key to starting the game... There are fixed norms for awarding athletes, and if he fits into those norms, he will be paid", one official tells the filmmakers.
A farmer's son belonging to rural Haryana, Singh -- who is popularly called "goonga pehelwan" -- had won medals at previous special Olympics, too. Aged 31, he won India’s first and only gold medal at the 2005 Deaflympics in Melbourne, Australia and added a silver medal at the World Deaf Wrestling Championship, 2008 in Yerevan, Armenia. Even then, he was denied permission to go to the Beijing Olympics in 2008 or London Olympics in 2012. Singh, present at the film release ceremony, was shown as telling the filmmakers in sign language that he feels neglected at the Chhatrasal Stadium, Delhi, where he trains himself.
"While other competing normal athletes live comfortably in separate rooms, I must live with others and in a room that stinks. If normal athletes are allowed home food, I am not. They get huge help from the government, I get nothing", he asserts, even as he is shown collecting "charity money" -- Rs 10 to Rs 100 notes -- from the rural folk in Haryana after winning dangal -- the traditional Indian mud wrestling. "This was terrible... How could such a major athlete be treated like this?", someone commented during an audience interaction that followed screening.

Comments

TRENDING

'Enough evidence' in Indian tradition to support legal basis for same-sex marriage

By Iyce Malhotra, Joseph Mathai, Sandeep Chachra*  The ongoing hearing in the Supreme Court on same-sex marriage provides space for much-needed conversations on issues that have hitherto remained “invisible” or engaged with patriarchal locker room humour. We must recognize that people with diverse sexualities and complex gender identities have faced discrimination, stigma and decades of oppression. Their issues have mainly remained buried in dominant social discourse, and many view them with deep insecurities.

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Our Representative Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

Victim of communal violence, Christians in Manipur want Church leadership to speak up

By Fr Cedric Prakash SJ*  The first eleven days of May 2023 have, in many ways, been a defining period of Indian history! Plenty has happened in a rapid-fire stream of events. Ironically, each one of them are indicators of how crimes and the criminalisation of society has become the ‘new norm’; these include, the May Day rallies with a focus on the four labour codes which are patently against the rights of workers; the U S Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) released its Annual Report on 1 May stating that conditions for religious freedom in India “continued to worsen in 2022”; the continued protest by the Indian women wrestlers at Jantar Mantar for the expulsion of the chief of the Indian Wrestlers Federation on very serious allegations; the Elections in Karnataka on 10 May (with communalism and corruption as the mainstay); the release of the fake, derogative and insensitive film ‘The Kerala Story’; the release of World Free Press Index on 3 May which places India

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Unlike other revolutionaries, Hindutva icon wrote 5 mercy petitions to British masters

By Shamsul Islam*  The Hindutva icon VD Savarkar of the RSS-BJP rulers of India submitted not one, two,or three but five mercy petitions to the British masters! Savarkarites argue: “There are no evidences to prove that Savarkar collaborated with the British for his release from jail. In fact, his appeal for release was a ruse. He was well aware of the political developments outside and wanted to be part of it. So he kept requesting for his release. But the British authorities did not trust him a bit” (YD Phadke, ‘A complex Hero’, "The Indian Expres"s, August 31, 2004)

Delhi HC rules in favour of retired Air Force officer 'overcharged' for Covid treatment

By Rosamma Thomas*  In a decision of May 22, 2023, the Delhi High Court ruled in favour of petitioner Group Captain Suresh Khanna who was under treatment at CK Birla Hospital, Gurugram, between April 28 and May 5, 2021, for a period of eight days, for Covid-19 pneumonia. The petitioner had to pay Rs 3,55,286 as treatment costs, but the Ex-Servicemen Contributory Health Scheme (ECHS) only reimbursed him for Rs 1,83,748, on the basis of government-approved rates. 

Polygamy in India "down" in 45 yrs: Muslims' from 5.7 to 2.55%, Hindus' 5.8 to 1.77%, "common" in SCs, STs

By Rajiv Shah Amidst All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) justifying polygamy, saying it “meets social and moral needs and the provision for it stems from concern and sympathy for women”, facts suggest the the practice is down from 5.7 per cent of Muslim families in 1961 to 2.55 per cent in 2006.

Savarkar 'criminally betrayed' Netaji and his INA by siding with the British rulers

By Shamsul Islam* RSS-BJP rulers of India have been trying to show off as great fans of Netaji. But Indians must know what role ideological parents of today's RSS/BJP played against Netaji and Indian National Army (INA). The Hindu Mahasabha and RSS which always had prominent lawyers on their rolls made no attempt to defend the INA accused at Red Fort trials.

India joining US sponsored trade pillar to hurt Indian farmers, 'promote' GM seeds, food

Counterview Desk  As many as 32 civil society organisations (CSOs), in a letter to Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal on the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) and India joining the trade pillar, have said that its provisions will allow the US to ensure a more favourable regulatory regime “for enhancing its exports of genetically modified (GM) seeds and GM food”, underlining, it will “significantly hurt the livelihoods of Indian farmers.”

Modi govt 'wholly untrustworthy' on Covid data, censored criticism on pandemic: Lancet

By Rajiv Shah*   One of the world’s most prestigious health journals, brought out from England, has sharply criticised the Narendra Modi government for being “wholly untrustworthy on Covid-19 health data”, stating, the “official government figures place deaths at more than 530 000, while WHO excess death estimates for 2020 and 2021 are near 4·7 million.”