Wrestlers spend 1 lakh daily on dharna: First rented mattresses-speakers, now buying all the stuff; Vinesh Phogat’s husband is watching the arrangements

Basic necessities are proving costly for the wrestlers protesting at Jantar Mantar demanding the arrest of Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh. In the last 5 days, the wrestlers have spent more than Rs 5 lakh on arranging a small generator, apart from mattresses, sheets, fans, speakers, microphones, water and food.

Initially, the wrestlers had to rent mattresses, bed sheets and sound systems, for which they had to spend 27 thousand every day. The wrestlers realized that arranging small things would become a huge financial burden if they had to sit for long periods of time.

Vinesh Phogat’s husband Somveer Rathi said, “So we decided to buy a mattress. He bought 80 mattresses from his village Kharkhoda by paying Rs 50,000. He was being charged a rent of Rs 12,000 per day for the mattress. This is a huge amount.

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Wrestlers are paying rent every day
Vinesh’s husband Somveer Rathi said, ‘Initially we had hired speakers and microphones, but the cost for one day was Rs 12,000. It was too much. Now we have bought our sound system from Chandni Chowk market for 60 thousand rupees.

The shopkeeper knew about wrestlers, so he sold it to us without making any profit. Fans and generators are still on rent. For both, he has to spend Rs 10,000 every day. If needed, we will buy coolers, he said. it is hot outside. We had brought Rs 2 lakh in cash with us, but have spent around Rs 5-6 lakh till now.

Wrestlers divided the work among themselves
Vinesh Phogat, Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia are the 3 big faces of this protest. Somveer, his friend Yogesh and many others are working day and night to keep the protest going. Somveer said, ‘We have divided the work among ourselves. Some coaches are ensuring that quality food is prepared by the chefs, while young wrestlers are delivering food to the protest site. Some people are ensuring that the water supply is uninterrupted. Somebody has been given the responsibility to take care of the cleanliness.

Other wrestlers, including Sakshi Malik, who is performing, are also practicing their routine on the mats.

Vinesh, Sakshi and Bajrang’s families run the expenses
Somveer said that the representatives of various akhadas of Haryana are not allowed to come here to Jantar Mantar as it would be very challenging to handle the huge crowd. Around 80 akhadas want to come here and support the protest, but we have stopped them from coming here.

When Somveer was asked whether he was not getting financial help from any political party or influential people? “If that was the case, the wrestlers would have a ‘waterproof shed’ over their heads and some good facilities here, but we are managing things with minimal resources,” he said.

At present, the families of Vinesh, Sakshi and Bajrang are managing the expenses. He said, “We are not taking help from anyone right now. We are managing things by ourselves. We are spending money very carefully. Those who are coming are making their own arrangements for food.

AAP stands in support of sportspersons: MP Gupta
Aam Aadmi Party will come forward to cooperate with the players. Daily newspaper Talking to PTI, the party’s Rajya Sabha MP Sushil Gupta said that we were with the wrestlers earlier also, are still there and will continue to be in the future. We will provide whatever basic things the wrestlers need. Today I am going to the protest site along with CM Arvind Kejriwal, Ashok Tanwar. Talking to the wrestlers, every help will be extended to them. Even if wrestlers say no, we will take the initiative to complete these things by ourselves. Undoubtedly, the Delhi Police may have disconnected the facilities of electricity, water, public toilets from the dharna site. We will meet these needs.