Thread by @dintentdata

For the last few months #WrestlersProtests ongoing against WFI president Brij Bhushan Singh. Since then, the whole incident became political. United World Wrestling recently condemns detentions of wrestlers as they now decided on " immersion of medals " in Ganga. (1/15)
A Thread-

Political and social media influencers are circulating false claims of expenditure on sports activities in the country. It is being said that the government does not spend money on sports activities as Indian athletes don't get any support from Govt.Let's dig a little- (2/15)

After winning the bronze medal at Tokyo Olympics Bajrang Punia was rewarded with ₹2.5 crore and a govt job as Gazetted officer of Indian Railways.

Wrestler Sakshi Malik has been rewarded at least ₹3.5 crores after winning the bronze medal for India at the Rio Olympics. (3/15)

Govt has spent over Rs 150 crore out of the taxpayers’ money on wrestling in the last five years, providing them with training, infrastructure,trip support. As far as personal expenses are concerned, the government spent Rs 2.58 crore on Bajrang & Rs 2.16 crore on Vinesh. (4/15)

As per Sports Authority of India (SAI), govt has spent ₹7 crores on Neeraj Chopra's Training ahead of the Tokyo Olympics.Later, he was training in Turkey after the Sports Authority of India's Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) approved his proposal to provide Rs.5.5 lakh.(5/15)

Sports ministry announced ₹5 crores for Gagan Narang's shooting academy "Gun For Glory" in 2019 to promote shooting sports to produce new talent in the shooting field. Gagan won bronze medal in the Men's 10 m Air Rifle Event at the 2012 Summer Olympics. (6/15)

Govt spent ₹65 crores on Indian men’s hockey teams in the last five years for coaching camps, competitions and other expenses also under the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) players of Indian hockey both the men's & women's teams get a monthly allowance worth Rs 50,000.(7/15)

The government has spent ₹67.19 crore in the last five years on Badminton which includes everything from camps, exposure, and training equipment to the salary payment of Indian and foreign coaches. (8/15)

Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) spends ₹30 crores on the Boxing Federation of India (BFI) to produce fresh talent in the field of Boxing in India. Rural Electrification Corporation (REC), a Maharatna company under the Ministry of Power. (9/15)

If we can compare overall India won 35 medals in Olympic Games while Japan won 575 medals. India finished 48th on the medal tally in Tokyo Olympics with 7 medals on the other hand Japan finished 3rd with 58 medals. So, the difference is clear between levels of success. (10/15)

India allocated ₹3,397 crore for sports for 2023-24 higher than Japan's sports budget of ₹2120 crore for 2023-24. Of course, Japan is a much smaller nation but the number of athletes representing in the Olympics is similar to India. [other than 2022 as Japan was host] (11/15)

The sports ministry has earmarked ₹190 crore for preparing Indian athletes for the 2022 Commonwealth Games and Asian Games.

Under the "Khelo India" campaign, an amount of about ₹3,200 crores will be spent on sports facilities in the next 5 years. (12/15)

United World Wrestling is always known for showing partiality against India.
In March 2019,the UWW recommended that its national federations end discussions or relations with the Wrestling Federation of India in the wake of visa denials to Pakistani Shooting sportspersons.(13/15)

In Oct 2022, the Spanish Embassy in New Delhi arbitrarily denied visas to 21 female and male Indian wrestlers, preventing them from participating in the U23 World Championships in Spain. Denials included the U20 Gold Medallist Antim Panghal.UWW has not made any statements.(14/15)

Protesting something is a democratic right & we here not to dissect the authenticity of the protest.
But those medals they want to immersion in Ganga are not something they won competing independently. They were representing the Tricolor & India. So, It belongs to India.(15/15)