Bengaluru, August 7: Indian women hockey team captain Rani Rampal condemned the allegedly casteist abuse that her Tokyo 2020 team-mate Vandana Katariya's family has faced, saying that it was nothing short of shameful.
The family of Vandana, who scored four goals during the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, found itself at the receiving end of allegedly casteist slurs from few people in their neighbourhood in Haridwar after the team lost the semifinal clash against Argentina on Wednesday (August 4).
"It's such a bad thing which has happened. We work so hard to represent our country. Stop all these things like discriminating on religion, casteism because we work above all these things," Rani said during a virtual press conference.
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Later on, India ended up fourth at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics after going down to Great Britain 3-4 in an intensely fought bronze medal play-off tie.
Though they lost the bronze medal match, their performance throughout Tokyo 2020 came in for special praise, even from the opposition camp.
Tokyo
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"We come from different parts of India, follow different religions. But when we come here we work together for India. It's so shameful when we see people indulging in such behaviour," Rani said.
"But there are also people who have given us so much love even though we didn't win a medal. So they should learn from such people. If we want to make India a hockey nation, we need everyone," she added.
We
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inspired
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nation:
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Hockey
Coach
Sjoerd
Marijne
Accoring to a PTI news agency report, two men had reportedly danced and burst firecrackers outside Vandana's house in the Roshnabad area of Haridwar in a gesture of mockery.
When some members of Vandana's family came out hearing the noise, the two men also passed casteist remarks against them, saying the team had lost because it had too many Dalit players in it, according to the local officials.
Tokyo
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India
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4-3
The 29-year-old striker had scored a hat-trick against South Africa in the group stages of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, becoming the first first from the country to achieve the feat.
Rani hoped that people will learn from this incident and such things will not happen in the furture, "It's a bad a thing, it shouldn't have happened. Maybe they'll learn in the future to not do such things."