For Ram Karan Singh, an
Arjuna Award winner in athletics, going for the Asian Games trial in April now
looks like a far-fetched dream. The 23-year-old, who was partially visually
challenged, lost his eyesight completely after he was injured in the police
action on Thursday. The police ‘highhandedness’ took place during a protest
against issuance of an ordinance on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
Bill.
The activists of Persons
with Disabilities, who were a part of All India Disabilities Alliance, were
protesting outside Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi's residence when the
police used force to evict them. They wanted to meet Mr. Gandhi and convey
their message to the President requesting him not to sign the ordinance on
Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill as is being planned by the UPA government.
“Earlier in the day, my
friends were protesting against the Bill at the All India Congress Committee
office. In the evening, I got to know they were lathi-charged; some of my
visually challenged friends and I went to support them. We were protesting in
front of Mr. Gandhi’s residence where the police had erected barricades. When
we tried to cross them, the policemen hit us with lathis,” said Mr. Singh,
talking to The Hindu.
“I was hit on my left eye
and several of my friends too were injured. We were taken to Ram Manohar Lohia
Hospital, where the doctors told me that the lens of my eye had been
dislocated. I cannot see anything after that incident,” he added.
Mr. Singh had lost his
eyesight in an accident when he was 14 but was able to see with his right eye
after he was operated upon in 2006. That is when he applied for the CellOne
Marathon in Delhi in the disabled category and won the gold medal in athletics.
This was the first step towards a sporting career and he never looked back.
In 2010, he received a
silver medal in the Asian Games; in 2011, he won a bronze in the World
Championship in Turkey; and in 2012, the prestigious Arjuna Award was conferred
on him.
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