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India’s ace badminton star, Jwala Gutta, is known for her controversies. Be it her alleged affair with former cricketer Mohd. Azharuddin or her outburst against IBL for auctioning her for an allegedly lower base price- Gutta has attracted controversy like bees to honey.
The controversial queen Jwala Gutta again in the headlines as some social media trolls attacked her on Twitter for being ‘anti-national’, since her mother hails from China. The badminton doubles star, whose mother Yelan was born in Tianjin, did not shy away from giving it back.
“Is it because ur mother is from China that’s y u oppose Modi every time?” (sic), she was asked. Jwala was the one to give a fitting reply.
Jwala, whose mother Yelen is Chinese, was clearly upset with the tweet and shot back “Think twice before you talk.”
This wasn’t the first time the 33-year-old has taken on a troll. Jwala is among the few Indian athletes who speaks her mind and doesn’t shy away from taking a position on issues that make headlines.
Jawala always gives bold statements about the ruling party. Apart from this, Jwala always keeps questions about the current Modi government.
Jwala was born on 7 September 1983 in Wardha, Maharashtra and brought up in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India, to a Telugu Indian father and a Chinese mother. Jwala’s father, Kranti Gutta, hailed from a family of freedom fighters and Leftists. Her mother, Yelan Gutta, was born in Tianjin, and is a granddaughter of a Gandhian named Tseng. Yelan first came to India in 1977 with her grandfather to visit the Sevagram ashram, where she translated Gandhi’s autobiography and other works into Chinese language.
During this period, Yelan fall in love with Hyderabadi freedom fighters Kranti Gutta. Both of them got married in 1982 and a year later, Jwala was born in Wardha. Jwala’s grandfather TSeng breaded his last at the Vinoba Bhave’s ashram.
Yelan himself played the Badminton, so that she wanted to make her daughter Jwala a badminton player too. Jwala had started playing badminton since then, when she was four years old. Initially inclined towards playing tennis, Gutta shifted to badminton at insistence from her mother.
Jawala’s father used to take her daily on a scooter to the Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium, 38 km away from home. Jwala learned badminton under the supervision of S.M. Arif. Arif recommended her to learn gymnastics or swimming for a couple of years before starting training for badminton.
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chief achievement as a youngster was to win the Under-13 Girls Mini National Badminton Championship held at Thrissur, Kerala. In 2000, Jwala (aged 17) won the Junior National Badminton Championship. The same year, she also won the Women’s Doubles Junior National Championship and the Senior National Badminton Championship, both in partnership with Shruti Kurien.
She played women’s doubles as well as mixed doubles at the 2012 London Olympics becoming the first and the only Indian to qualify in two events in the entire history of the game.
During her badminton career, Gutta began dating fellow badminton player Chetan Anand. The couple married on 17 July 2005 and got divorced on 29 June 2011. The divorce gathered huge and unwanted media attention and speculations about an affair with ex-cricketer Mohammad Azharuddin also came up, but was never confirmed due to lack of any proof of the news and constant denials from Jwala herself. Jwala confirmed filing the divorce but denied that it had anything to do with Azharuddin.
In Oct 2013, Jwala Gutta was seen making headlines for controversies over dispute with Badminton Association of India as the BAI has put a life time ban on Indian Doubles Player for trying to stop some players of her Franchise Delhi Smashers during a match against Bangla Beats in Indian Badminton League. She was also in media for her outburst against Badminton Association for her lower base price. A notice was sent to Jwala Gutta to explain the whole matter and apologize for the same, but she refused to do so. However the Delhi High Court then overturned the ban and now Gutta is free to play French Open and German Open.
In 2011, Gutta was awarded the Arjuna award by the Indian Government, India’s second highest sporting honour for her achievements as a badminton player.
In 2013, she appeared in an item number in a Telugu Film, Gunde Jaari Gallanthayyinde. She had also arrived in Indian TV Show – ‘Comedy Nights with Kapil’ as a guest with Vijender Singh.
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