Gold medallist Jwala slams badminton chief for indifferent treatment

NEW DELHI - Jwala Gutta slammed Badminton Association of India (BAI) president V.K. Verma for not congratulating her and her partner Ashwini Ponnappa after their gold medal win in the women’s doubles event of badminton competition of the Commonwealth Games here Thursday.

Jwala and Ashwini stunned top seed Singaporeans Sari Shanti Mulia and Yao Lei 21-16 21-19 in the final and became the first Indian women’s pair to win a badminton gold in the Commonwealth Games.

“One thing for which I am not happy was our federation chief (V K Verma) did not even congratulate us after our win. Our president who was sitting and watched the match whole time, did not come to congratulate us,” Jwala said.

“I was not really happy with the way our association is working. I would like to change a lot of things in the coming years,” added Jwala.

“Me, Ashwini and V Diju are doing really well on the international circuit. We have got support from the government but don’t know how much we have got from the association,” Jwala questioned.

Jwala feels that the medal will finally silence her critics.

“This medal will silent my critics. This is my answer to them to whatever happened. I am very happy and everyone who has negative thoughts about me, I would like to say just shut up now,” she said.