New Delhi: AICC former Chief and MP Rahul Gandhi said it was as important to pay the athletes their dues as it was to offer congratulations. He reacted sharply to media reports on his Instagram Monday that some of India’s athletes including those who won medals at the Tokyo Olympics have yet to receive cash rewards promised for medals won at other competitive meets such as the Asian Games – 2018.

Players should get their dues with the congratulations, not cuts in the sports budgets, he said. Enough with the video calls and now hand out the reward amounts to the medal winners. Congress MP Rahul Gandhi took a dig at political leaders, many as a reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi rushing to congratulate athletes in video calls who held video calls with several of the medal winners.

Rahul Gandhi attached screenshots of tweets made in 2019 by Tokyo heroes Neeraj Chopra who won India’s first ever Gold Medal in a track and field event and Bajrang Punia, who won bronze in wrestling. The tweet in which Haryana Chief Minister ML Khattar and Home Minister Anil Vij were tagged contained a screenshot of a 2018 tweet by Vij that promised ₹ 3 crore as cash reward for Punia for winning a gold medal at the Asian Games that year.

Neeraj Chopra has been promised ₹ 6 crore by the Haryana government, which has also promised ₹ 2.5 crore to Bajrang Punia and two members of the men’s bronze winning hockey team.