The mess surrounding the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award has got messier.
The initial controversy was triggered by certain anonymous members of the selection committee claiming manipulation and hijacking of the entire process by shooter Anjali Bhagwat to nominate Ronjan Sodhi for the award, ignoring discus thrower Krishna Poonia.
On Wednesday, Anjali hit back, saying it was, in fact, Poonia who had tried to influence the decision before the committee met. “She (Poonia) called me and asked me to recommend her name for the Khel Ratna award the day before the panel met,” Anjali said. “It is wrong on Poonia’s part to now publicly say that I was the one who got the list changed,” she added.
Poonia rubbishes allegations
Poonia, however, rubbished all allegations of lobbying.
“If we had to, we could have lobbied directly with the Sports Minister, who is from Rajasthan, just like me. There were other athletes, people from Delhi, Haryana and Rajasthan, in the committee that I could have called up. Why Anjali?” she said on her way back to Patiala.
“Wrong has been done to me, and I was only raising my voice against that,” Poonia said.
The Olympian had met Sports Minister Jitendra Singh on Tuesday to explain her credentials for the award. “If I get it, fine, if I don’t, it’s ok. I have faith in my performance and I don't have to indulge in lobbying,” she said.
After the controversy broke out, the minister held a series of meetings with officials including sports secretary P.K. Deb and SAI director-general Jiji Thompson over the last three days.
However, ministry sources said it was unlikely there would be any change in the list of awardees finalised by the respective committees.
