Rahul Gandhi Meets Wrestler Bajrang Punia and Other Wrestlers, Shows Jiu-jitsu Skills

Amidst the ongoing row over Wrestling Federation of India elections, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi who met wrestler Bajrang Punia at the Virendra Akhara in Haryana’s Jhajjar district, demonstrated his jiu-jitsu skills while engaging in a martial art session with him.

During his early morning visit on Wednesday, Gandhi had a practice session with the wrestlers and displayed the Japanese martial art skills to them.

The wrestler, Punia took to ’X’ on Thursday, to share the video where Gandhi can be seen showing the ’locks’ and ’chokes’ technique in jiu-jitsu as he pinned Olympic Games bronze medallist Bajrang down on the mat.

Jiu-jitsu is a Japanese martial art form and a close combat sport. The Congress leader also had breakfast with the wrestlers during his meeting with them. He had milk, ’bajre ki roti’ and ’saag’ and was also offered some locally-grown vegetables which he took along with him.

As Bajrang explained him the difference between wrestling on the mud and on mat, the former Congress president also learnt some of the wrestling moves such as ’dhobi pachaad’ and ’dhak’. Gandhi is known to have an inclination towards combat sports and is also trained in aikido, a modern Japanese martial art form.

According to Rahul’s aikido coach Sensei Paritos Kar, the Congress MP appeared for a test in 2013 which he passed and was awarded the black belt.

In the video posted on his X account, Bajrang said, ”Today Rahul ji came to our akhada and we felt really good, he came to see how the wrestlers live and train and everyone was very happy. He (Gandhi) said he practices jiu-jitsu, he was telling us the moves and how it starts and I showed the basics of our game like ’dhobi pachaad’ and ’dhak’.”

Dhobi pachaad is a famous move in which a wrestler lifts his opponent on the shoulders and then slams him to the mat, and in dhak, the wrestler holds his opponent in a headlock before throwing him to the ground.

Gandhi’s visit to the wrestling academy comes days after Punia, who has been at the forefront of the protests against former WFI president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, returned his Padma Shri to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Punia took the decision following the election of Brij Bhushan’s close aide Sanjay Singh as the president of the WFI. The government suspended the new committee last Sunday.

”If we don’t raise the voice of our daughters and such people continue to curb them, then no daughter or sister will be able to raise their concerns in future in our country,” Bajrang said. ”I didn’t wan’t to leave it (Padma Shri).. if our sisters and daughters are not safe then what I will do with these laurels. They are our pride, if they are safe then we will get our pride on its own.” On December 21, Sanjay was elected as the WFI president as the panel led by the close aide of Brij Bhushan won 13 of the 15 posts.

The wrestlers had demanded that no close associate of Brij Bhushan should enter the WFI administration. Following the election, Rio Olympics bronze medallist Sakshi Malik announced that she would quit the sport, while World Championship medallist Vinesh Phogat returned her Khel Ratna and Arjuna Award to the government in protest against Sanjay’s election.

Bajrang, Vinesh and Sakshi had led the five-month-long protest of wrestlers at Jantar Mantar after accusing former WFI chief Brij Bhushan of sexually exploiting several women grapplers. Hours after getting elected as WFI President on Thursday, Sanjay Singh had announced that age group national championships will be held from December 28 in Gonda, UP. It prompted the Sports Ministry to suspend the newly-elected panel for not following the provisions of its own constitution while taking decisions and also asked the IOA to constitute an ad-hoc panel to manage the affairs of the sports body.

(with PTI inputs)