The Indian government subsequently put strict restrictions in place and cancelled existing visas for Chinese citizens and foreigners who had visited the country in the last two weeks.

Warned by the world body, Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) has urged the government to grant visas to Chinese and Pakistani grapplers for this month’s Asian Championship. The federation’s president, BJP Member of Parliament Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, said India’s participation in future tournaments, including the Tokyo Olympics qualifiers, could be hampered if wrestlers from these two countries are not allowed to travel to India for the continental tournament, scheduled to be held in New Delhi from February 18 to 23.

The participation of Chinese wrestlers was put in doubt after the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus, which has killed nearly 500 people so far.

The Indian government subsequently put strict restrictions in place and cancelled existing visas for Chinese citizens and foreigners who had visited the country in the last two weeks. The e-visa facility, too, has been temporarily suspended for Chinese travellers and foreigners residing in China. Sharan said he met External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Wednesday to discuss the issue after the Chinese Wrestling Association wrote to the WFI last weekend, requesting them to help out with the visa process to ensure their wrestlers can travel to India.

“China’s federation sent us a request letter saying that 40 grapplers have been checked and none of them have been tested positive for the virus. They have been quarantined,” Sharan said, adding that the wrestlers will have to go through the protocol set by the health ministry upon their arrival in Delhi.

Sharan added that no wrestler can refuse to compete with their Chinese opponents if he or she is found to be unaffected by the virus. The WFI swung into action after it received a letter from United World Wrestling (UWW), warning them that no country should be denied participation.

“UWW has written to us stating that there should not be any visa problem as this is a mandatory tournament. When we are allotted a tournament, we have to give them the assurance that no country will be denied participation,” Sharan said. “And if we do something voluntarily, then it is an Olympic year and Asian qualifiers are also there. So we don’t want to take any risk that will hurt our wrestlers in an Olympic year. We have written to the Ministry of External Affairs and attached a copy of the letter.”

Bone of contention

Pakistani wrestlers, too, are waiting for the Indian government to grant visas. The participation of Pakistani athletes in India has been a bone of contention, especially after India refused to grant visas to their shooters for the ISSF World Cup last year in New Delhi. Consequently, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had suspended all Indian applications to host future events.

A similar ban could be imposed again if India does not grant visas to Pakistani and/or Chinese wrestlers. Sports minister Kiren Rijiju said the government will follow the Olympic charter.

“Coronavirus is an epidemic. The Health Ministry and External Affairs Ministry are taking care of it. It is a sensitive issue but we have to host international events,” Rijiju said. “We already had a discussion with the International Olympic Committee and we have committed to them that we will abide by the Olympic charter (with regards to issuing visas)”.

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