India's medal winners at the 2026 Commonwealth Games earned praise from across the political spectrum on Monday, 3 August 2026 — but AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal paired his congratulations with a sharp demand: that India formally protest the removal of wrestling and shooting from the Games roster, disciplines where the country has historically dominated.

Kejriwal wrote that while he is 'incredibly proud' of the athletes who 'participated and brought home medals for the country,' it is 'deeply disheartening to see that sports like wrestling and shooting where we traditionally excel have been removed from the CWG roster.' He called the omissions 'unfair' and urged India to 'strongly protest' them.

Why wrestling and shooting matter to India's CWG identity

The two sports are not peripheral to India's Commonwealth Games story — they are central to it. Wrestling and shooting have historically been among India's most reliable medal sources at the Games, with athletes from smaller towns and rural backgrounds punching far above their weight on the international stage. Their removal strikes at the heart of what the Commonwealth Games has meant for Indian sport: a platform where depth of talent, not just elite infrastructure, gets rewarded.

The concern is structural. When an international body removes a discipline, Indian athletes who have spent years training in that event lose not just a competition but a career milestone, a funding trigger, and a visibility moment that grassroots programmes depend on to justify investment.

Grassroots investment and the medal table ambition

Kejriwal's post also pointed forward, arguing that 'thoughtful investments at the grassroots level and proper structural support' could place India 'at the top of the medal table in the future.' That framing aligns with a longer arc of Indian sports policy: the Khelo India programme, launched in 2017, was designed precisely to identify and nurture talent at the district and state level before it reaches the international stage. The 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games similarly triggered a wave of infrastructure spending that reshaped elite training facilities across the country.

The gap between ambition and outcome, however, has often come down to factors outside India's control — including exactly the kind of roster decisions Kejriwal is flagging now.

The call for a formal Indian protest

Whether India's Sports Ministry or its National Olympic Committee will take up the demand remains the live question. The Commonwealth Games Federation governs event inclusion, and India's leverage as one of the Games' largest delegations and most engaged host nations gives it a credible seat at that table. A formal diplomatic or institutional protest, if filed, would put the federation on notice ahead of planning for the next edition.

For now, Kejriwal has done what opposition politicians do best at moments like this: thread the celebratory needle with a pointed structural critique, ensuring the applause for athletes doesn't drown out the accountability question for administrators.

India's wrestlers and shooters built their careers around a stage that has now been taken from them. The athletes deserve the medals table conversation — and the federation deserves the hard questions that come with it.