Former national badminton champion Jwala Gutta alleges mental harassment, speaks out against selection bias by ‘chief’

New Delhi: Indian badminton player Jwala Gutta on Tuesday raked up past complaints of “mental harassment” and selection biases, saying that what she went through fell under the ambit of the ongoing Me Too movement. [caption id=“attachment_2382100” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Jwala Gutta. AFP[/caption] In a series of tweets, the former world championships bronze-medallist in women’s doubles neither took any names nor mentioned any instances of sexual harassment, which form the core of the movement that has taken India by storm after major ramifications the world over. Gutta, also a former Commonwealth Games gold-medallist, reiterated her allegations of being targetted in selection. “Maybe I should talk about the mental harassment I had to go through…#metoo,” she said.

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 RIO. I am out of national team again.one of the reasons I stopped playing!!,” Gutta alleged. The Hyderabad-based player had a long-standing and much-publicised feud with chief national coach Pullela Gopichand, during which she alleged that he concentrated solely on singles players while ignoring the ones in doubles. She went on to claim that criticism of Gopichand resulted in her being sidelined from the national team and even the loss of doubles partners. She, however, did not take Gopichand’s name in her tweets on Tuesday. “Since 2006…till 2016…have been thrown out of the team again n again n again..inspite of my performances…2009 I was back in the team when I was world no.9..,” she said. Gopichand, on his part, has refrained from reacting on her allegations in the past.