After #MeToo movement has taken social media by storm following Tanushree Dutta’s allegations against veteran actor Nata Patekar, in one of the latest revelations, former badminton player Jwala Gutta has opened up about the mental harassment she had to endure during her playing career.
While the Gopichand vs Gutta saga has been well-documented over the years. In a recent series of tweets, the former world no.6 without taking names has indirectly hit out at Badminton Federation of India (BFI) Chief coach Pullela Gopichand, accusing him of bias.
Recalling the unsavoury incident, where she was given then axe, right after securing gold with Ashwini Ponnappa at the Commonwealth Games women’s doubles event. Gutta voiced her displeasure over the unfair treatment she received from the BFI chief.
Maybe I should talk about the mental harassment I had to go through… #metoo
— Gutta Jwala (@Guttajwala) October 9, 2018
Since 2006.since this person became the chief ..threw me out of national team inspite of me being a national champion.the latest was when I returned from https://t.co/Ag37TlXFd3 out of national team https://t.co/OVhyvFNAN9 of the reasons I stopped playing!!
— Gutta Jwala (@Guttajwala) October 9, 2018
“Maybe I should talk about the mental harassment I had to go through…#metoo,” she said. “Since 2006, since this person became the chief, he threw me out of national team inspite of me being a national champion. The latest was when I returned from Rio. I was out of national team again. One of the reasons I stopped playing!”
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“Since 2006…till 2016…have been thrown out of the team again and again and again..inspite of my performances…2009 I was back in the team when I was world no.9.,” she said. “So when this person couldn’t get through to me…he threatened my partners, harassed them, made sure to isolate me in every manner. Even after Rio, the one who I was gonna play mixed with was threatened. And I was just thrown out of the team.”
The former Commonwealth gold medalist pointed out that doubles players has previously pointed that doubles players were not treated well as compared to their the singles exponents. However, when Peulla Gopichand has refrained from reacting on her allegations in the past.
In the last couple of days, a lot of victims have spoken up and exposed their exploiters who happen to be some eminent personalities of the entertainment industry. It started with veteran actor Nana Patekar and director Vivek Agnihotri and now many more names have been added to the list of predators.