Led by Kartar Singh, a two-time gold medalist at the former Asian Games, some Punjab players marched to the Rashtrapati Bhavan to return 35 national sports awards, and farmers united in protest against the new agricultural laws. But the police stopped them on the way. Kartar, who won the Arjuna Award in 1982 and the Padma Shri award in 1987, is a member of the Olympic gold medal winning team, former hockey player Gurmel Singh and former captain of women’s hockey team Rajbir Kaur. Gurmel was awarded the Dhyan Chand Award in 2014 while Rajbir received the Arjuna Award in 1984.
Kartar, who won gold medals at the 1978 and 1986 Asian Games, said farmers would always support us. The roads are closed to us when our farmer brothers are lathi-charged. Farmers are sitting on the streets in bitter winter for their rights. I am the son of a farmer and the inspector general of police, but I still do farming. The players, who arrived in Delhi on Sunday, started their march from the Press Club of India but were stopped by the police and sent back.
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I urge the government to revoke this cruel law, ”Kartar said. When the whole country was in awe of Corona, they passed the bill in both Houses and ratified the President. He said I agree that there is a need to change agricultural laws but it should be the government’s priority to make our children happy when they are not happy… why is this government forcing farmers to accept the controversial law after all?
The players who marched claimed to have the support of several Arjuna awards and other national sports award winners. Earlier, Khel Ratna Award winner and India’s first Olympic medalist in boxing, Vijender Singh, had threatened to return his prize in support of farmers. Thousands of farmers from Punjab and Haryana have been living in different borders of Delhi for more than a week in protest against the new agricultural laws.
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