India’s leading top vaulters Dev Meena and Kuldeep Yadav were recently forced to deboard a train at Panvel station in Maharashtra, according to a video going viral on social media. The clip shared on X Monday evening showed the Indian athletes sending out a direct message to Indian Railways, eliciting furious reactions directed at authorities after a Travelling Ticket Examiner (TTE) forced the players out of a train.

“Requests for clarification were ignored. Appeals to speak to senior officials went unheard. Even offers to pay a fine failed,” a message played over the video.

Thereafter, the clip cuts to Dev Meena and Kuldeep Yadav addressing the situation. The athletes disclosed that after already missing their original train, they had to stay back at the station for nearly 5 hours. Expressing his personal views, Meena opened up about how it all painted a dire picture for young aspiring athletes in India, considering such a thing had happened with some of the best pole vaulters in the country.

While Meena has broken Indian pole vault national record multiple times, Kuldeep Yadav was crowned the All India University champion in the men’s pole vault at All India Inter-University Athletics Championships. Breaking the meet record, he went on to win gold.

Here’s what happened.

Viral video controversy: India’s top vaulters stranded at Panvel station

An Indian outlet called nnis Sports, which claims to cover the “best original content on Indian Athletics,” shared a video summarising how India’s top pole vaulters were reportedly harassed at the hands of a TTE at Panvel station after a competitive event.

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The pole-vaulting pair is believed to have been subjected to the unprecedented behaviour and demands to get off the train simply because they were carrying their sports equipment. As per Meena’s admission in the video going around on X, good-quality poles required for competing cost about Rs 2 lakh.

Right at the beginning of the clip, a TTE can be seen arguing with a national coach, wearing a blue ‘India’ T-shirt, who was accompanying Meena and Yadav. According to nnis Sport, the shocking development unfolded after the pole vaulters were on their way back from the All India Inter-University Athletics Championship 2026 (where Yadav won broke the meet record), with plans to travel from Mangaluru to Bhopal.

As now seen in the video, the TTE could be heard telling National Coach and a former pole vaulter, Ghanshyam Yadav from the DSWY Academy, travelling with Meena and Yadav that while the athletes may board the train, their equipment wasn’t allowed to be transported the same way. The national coach was left with no choice but to fold his hands in front of the TTE while pleading him.

Instead of receiving a pat on the back for their contributions to a niche sport in India, railway authorities’ decision to push them out of the train left the players stranded at Panvel station for nearly 5 hours. Meena then directly called out Indian Railways, urging authorities to at least try and support the country’s athletes, even if in the most basic way possible.

The national record-holder said that they were even willing to pay extra so that their equipment could be safely transported with them.

“Where should the athlete go?” he furiously questioned, adding that similar shortcomings were faced across different modes of transportation, be it trains or flights.

Thereafter, Yadav takes the mic, divulging that train officials told them that the action had been enforced against them due to complaints about their equipment coming in from other passengers.

“We’re India’s top pole vaulter. What should we even tell our juniors, when we, as India’s top vaulters, are facing something like this?” Yadav said in Hindi. He also argued that with Asian Games 2026 coming up ahead, everyone’s going to expect them to qualify despite their pleas being left unheard in such situations.

Encapsulating the difficulties faced by pole vaulters, the now-viral video raised serious questions about the future of sports that may be lesser known in India. Not only does pole vault make for one of the toughest sporting events, it also remains rather niche, especially in India.

On top of the lack of awareness surrounding the sport, Meena and Yadav’s Panvel station incident further shed light on how difficult it was to travel with necessary equipment.

As the top pole vaulters failed to find support from officials, the Panvel video controversy expanded the seemingly never-ending debate around India’s sports infrastructure and how far the authorities are willing to go through to deliver the best to the best of Indian athletes.

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Internet reacts to viral video of India’s top pole vaulters being ‘thrown out’ of train

As nnis Sports, Dev Meean and Kuldeep Yadav collectively posted the same video on Instagram as well, users flooded the comments section by simply tagging the official account of the Ministry of Railways.

A bewildered user wrote: “Srly we r hosting 2036 Olympics.”

Another sports enthusiast tagged on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Dr Mansukh Mandaviya, the 19th Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports, and Ashwini Vaishnaw, the Union Minister of Railways, adding: “if you are planning to host Olympics in 2036, we need to first educate our general public about the sports that are part of Olympics, the rules of the sports involved, equipments that are being used by about our athletes.”

Railway Seva, which is the ‘official ‘Official Twitter Account for support to RailUsers,’ ultimately responded to the plea under the nnis Sports video on X. “For necessary action escalated to the concerned official,” they wrote, while tagging the official account of Divisional Railway Manager, Mumbai division, Central Railway.