NEW DELHI: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had demonstrated his jiu-jitsu skills while engaging in a martial art bout with wrestler Bajrang Punia during his visit to the Virendra Akhara in Haryana’s Jhajjar district amid the row over Wrestling Federation of India elections.
Gandhi had a practice session with the wrestlers and displayed the Japanese martial art skills to them during the early morning visit on Wednesday.
In a video uploaded by Bajrang on ‘X’ on Thursday, Gandhi can be seen showing the ‘locks’ and ‘chokes’ technique in jiu-jitsu as he pinned Olympic Games bronze medallist down on the mat.
Jiu-jitsu is a Japanese martial art form and a close combat sport.
The former Congress president also learnt some of the wrestling moves such as ‘dhobi pachaad’ and ‘dhak’ with Bajrang explaining him the difference between wrestling on the mud and on mat.
Gandhi is known to have an inclination towards combat sports and is also trained in aikido, a modern Japanese martial art form.
According to Rahul’s aikido coach Sensei Paritos Kar, the Congress MP appeared for a test in 2013 which he passed and was subsequently awarded the black belt.
Gandhi had breakfast with the wrestlers during his meeting with them. He had milk, ‘bajre ki roti’ and ‘saag’ and was also offered some locally-grown vegetables which he took along with him.
“Today Rahul ji came to our akhada and we felt really good, he came to see how the wrestlers live and train and everyone was very happy,” Bajrang said in the video.
“He (Gandhi) said he practises jiu-jitsu, he was telling us the moves and how it starts and I showed the basics of our game like ‘dhobi pachaad’ and ‘dhak’.”