Why has Major Dhyanchand still not been awarded the Bharat Ratna? This is nonetheless not apparent. Although people raised serious demand for the honour, yet the request was not heard.
It is no longer an issue with the BJP government. He stands as the hockey legend but what happens ultimately thrives before everyone. His name was put on a Khel Ratna award which was earlier known as Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award.
Without a doubt, the most extraordinary civilian award of Bharat Ratna was demanded by everyone but it was not taken extensively. The hockey legend’s play was par excellence. Unfortunately, there is a lot of similitude between what was told in previous years and what remains to be asserted in the year 2021.
The public susceptibility and review have been arising over the last several years. The related common trends did barely come out of nowhere. They do not necessarily have an inkling of political correctness. In many possibilities, it seems to be referred to matters that have been persisting for a very long time. Doubts have a history spanning back much remotely than most people can anticipate.
If the demand for the highest award was raised for Sonia Gandhi by a political leader of Uttarakhand, it was chided more like a party course. Even Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar could not stop himself to chuckle over the demand for conferring Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian honour in the country, on Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
Why so? It must have appeared specific political thought. The idea might have been dull or flat. “All have the right to raise any type of demand,” he said with a barely restrained giggle when asked about the indication made by former union minister and ex-chief minister of Uttarakhand Harish Rawat that Sonia Gandhi, besides BSP supremo Mayawati, should be considered for the civilian honour.
Though Nitish Kumar at that time also pointed out that the Congress could have done the needful while the UPA, led by it, had ruled the country for two straight terms.
When politicians accept that all have the right to raise any type of demand benefitting the countrymen, why has the demand to honour Dhyanchand with the award goes unheard?
Rawat had said in support of his very demand that while the then Congress president has taken the honour of Indian womanhood to new heights, the BSP chief had inspired millions of oppressed. However, legendary hockey player’s contribution to hockey was tremendous up to the present time. No Bharat Ratna Award was given in the year 2020.
It will be apt to mention here that well-known independence movement leader and India’s first Minister of Education Maulana Abul Kalam Azad declined the honour, arguing that those who were on selection committees for national honours should not themselves receive them.