In the ongoing Under 23 World Wrestling Championship in the Spanish city of Pontevedra, the issue of granting visas to only nine out of 30 Indian wrestlers has caught up. Priyanka, who replaced injury-struck Priya in the women’s 76kg category, got her visa despite not being on the original list, while the names of 21 wrestlers and some coaches were struck off. There is a lot of resentment among the wrestlers about this. This is the condition when the President of the Indian Wrestling Association is a BJP MP.
Mahavir Singh, coach of the Indian Greco-Roman team and winner of the Dronacharya Award, said how even a wrestler whose name was not on the main list got her visa. He said that how do positive results come after getting a visa through an agent? He says the president of the Spanish Wrestling Association also expressed displeasure with his embassy. At the same time, Alka Tomar, who was the coach of the women’s team and a medalist of the World Championship, said that in today’s tough competitive era, there is no guarantee that these children will be re-selected in the future. Not being given a visa is a big deal for these children.
All eyes were on Antim Panghal, a member of the team, as she won the country’s only gold medal so far in the World Junior Championship under 20. This player, despite being a junior, won in the senior category. She won everyone’s heart by winning gold in the National Games. But today, this player is very disappointed. She said, “I brought my weight from 56 to 53 kg for this championship. I wanted to prove that just like under 20, she can become a world champion in under 23. But his coach, Vikas Sir, also helped a lot. To be honest, my heart is still believing that I will get some good news from the Federation and I will be able to go to Spain and fulfil my dream of becoming a champion.”
On the other hand, Wrestling Association of India President Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh said, “We did not hesitate to provide visas to the players of Pakistan in the Asian Championship even though everyone knows how our relationship with Pakistan is. We provided them from hotel to security. But Spain has shown a very irresponsible attitude by granting visas to nine of our 30 wrestlers.”
According to reports in the media, the reason for the denial of the visa is the intention of the players to leave the territory before the expiry of the visa.