In what comes as a shocker, the family of Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav -- who was the first to bag an individual medal in the Olympics -- has decided to auction the bronze medal because of the failure of the Maharashtra government to honour the commitment of opening a wrestling academy at Goleshwar in Karad taluka of Satara district.
Besides, the Jadhav family and the villagers are unhappy that Khashaba Jadhav had not been conferred with any Padma awards.
Khashaba Jadhav (January 15, 1926 – August 14, 1984), popularly known as ‘Pocket Dynamo’, is best known as a wrestler who won a bronze medal at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki in Finland.
It was exactly 65 years ago, on 24 July, 1952, he brought laurels for the country.
“Yes…it is unfortunate, but we have decided to auction the medal….let the government decide the right price,” his son Ranjit Jadhav told Deccan Herald on Monday night over phone from Satara district.
From 14 August, 2017, he also plans to go on a hunger strike along with other villagers. Incidentally, this is the eve of 70th year of Independence.
“It is sad…we are dejected,” said Ranjeet Jadhav, adding that his father continues to be an inspiration.
He said that it was the government which proposed a wrestling academy and now they are turning a blind eye. “They should say if that is not happening,” he said, adding that in 2009, the wrestling academy at Goleshwar was proposed and still nothing has moved. “We have corresponded with the Congress-NCP Democratic Front government as well as the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance government but nothing seem to be happening,” he laments.
“We have to look at the importance and achievement. His was the first individual medal by an Indian in Olympics in 1952….it was 44 years later Leander Paes won the second individual medal, a bronze, in 1996. So far we have 15 individual medals in Olympics in a country over 130 crore population,” he said, adding that Khashaba Jadhav is a inspiration for future wrestlers.
Published 24 July 2017, 14:42 IST