India’s Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports, Anurag Thakur, canceled his visit to the Asian Games in Hangzhou in protest against the treatment of three wushu athletes from Arunachal Pradesh. The athletes, Nyeman Wangsu, Onilu Tega, and Mepung Lamgu, faced visa and accreditation issues, preventing them from traveling to China for the continental showpiece. On their arrival in Hangzhou, they were not able to fly out with the rest of the contingent due to problems with their accreditation validation and reportedly being issued stapled visas.
The Government of India strongly condemned the discriminatory treatment faced by the athletes and called it a deliberate and selective obstruction. The official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, Arindam Bagchi, stated on social media that China targeted and premeditatedly discriminated against the Indian sportspersons, violating the spirit of the Asian Games and the rules governing their conduct. The Government of India protested against China’s actions, asserting that Arunachal Pradesh is an integral and inalienable part of India and rejecting the differential treatment of Indian citizens on the basis of domicile or ethnicity.
As a mark of protest, India’s Minister of Information and Broadcasting and Youth Affairs and Sports canceled his scheduled visit to China for the Games. The Government of India reserves the right to take suitable measures to safeguard its interests. The decision came after a press conference where the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) and the Hangzhou Asian Games Organizing Committee (HAGOC) were questioned about the issue. OCA’s honorary life vice-president, Wei Jizhong, claimed that the athletes were granted Chinese visas but decided not to accept them. He clarified that China has different kinds of visas and gave the athletes options, including arrival visas, paper visas, and visas on the passport. The decision not to accept the visas was made by the athletes and was not an OCA problem.
The wushu competitions at the Asian Games are scheduled to run from September 24 to 28 at the Guali Cultural & Sports Centre in the Xiaoshan district.
