Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on August 6 that the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award will be renamed as the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award as a tribute to the legendary hockey player. The Indian men’s hockey team clinched the bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics and the Indian women’s hockey team finished fourth after a spirited fight. This was apparently the reason for the renaming exercise.
The Prime Minister tweeted, “I have been getting many requests from citizens across India to name the Khel Ratna Award after Major Dhyan Chand. I thank them for their views. Respecting their sentiment, the Khel Ratna Award will hereby be called the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award! Jai Hind!” He chose not to tweet the full name of the Khel Ratna Award, which led to some criticism.
Also read | Former hockey players demand Bharat Ratna for Major Dhyan Chand
Two awards, one name
Given that there already exists an award known as the Major Dhyan Chand Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sports and Games, the renaming is quite absurd. Now we have two prestigious awards named after the same sportsperson being given on the same day, August 29, which is Dhyan Chand’s birthday and also the National Sports Day. If the objective behind the renaming, as some believe, was to spite the Congress party or the Gandhi family, mere removal of Rajiv Gandhi’s name would have sufficed, and the award could have been known as Khel Ratna. Now that this decision has been taken, the government should consider renaming the Major Dhyan Chand Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sports and Games after the ‘Flying Sikh’, Milkha Singh, who passed away this year due to COVID-19-related complications.
It was Singh’s dream that an Indian athlete get a gold medal at the Olympics and the national anthem be played in the stadium. Singh missed the bronze by one-tenth of a second during the 1960 Olympics in Rome in the 400 metres final. Sadly, he did not survive to see Neeraj Chopra bag the Olympics gold with a mighty hurl of the javelin to the 87.58 metre-mark in Tokyo. In a befitting tribute, Chopra dedicated the medal to Singh.
Until 2011, when cricketer Sachin Tendulkar was conferred the Bharat Ratna , sportspersons were never considered for the highest civilian award. Soon after Tendulkar’s name was announced, many people appealed to the government to award the Bharat Ratna posthumously to Major Dhyan Chand. In fact, Singh, though happy that Tendulkar received the award, believed that the honour should have first gone to Major Dhyan Chand. Major Dhyan Chand was not only revered in our country but was also acknowledged as an international icon.
With our Prime Minister choosing to respect the sentiments of our countrymen, it would be a great tribute to the hockey wizard if he awards the Bharat Ratna to Major Dhyan Chand on Independence Day this year. Thanking the Prime Minister for renaming the Khel Ratna Award after his grandfather, Major Dhyan Chand’s grandson Vishal Singh said that the hockey great deserved the Bharat Ratna. He added that Major Dhyan Chand’s patriotism and love for India could be gauged from the fact that he turned down the job he was offered in the German Army as well as German citizenship, to continue to play for India.
Encouraging sports
With an individual athletics gold added to our kitty of Olympic medals, there is now enormous interest amongst youngsters in various sports. We need to build up the tempo by encouraging them to take to sports seriously. While the Sports Ministry is playing its part, the Education Ministry too has to jump on to the bandwagon by including legendary sports figures such as Major Dhyan Chand, Sachin Tendulkar, Milkha Singh, Gurbachan Singh Randhawa, P.T. Usha and Hari Chand in the textbooks. The National Council of Educational Research and Training could play a pivotal role in this direction.
M.P. Nathanael is Inspector General of Police (Retd), CRPF
