National Sports Awards

National Sports Award: Sans The Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna For the First Time in 2 Decades

With the National Sports Award ceremonies this year being mired in some controversies, the ceremony attracted attention for the right as well as the not so right reasons. For the first time in 20 years of Indian sporting history, the country's most biggest sporting honour, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna was not awarded.

The National Sports Award was presented by President Pranab Mukherjee at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. Boxer Manoj Kumar also took legal action against the Sports Ministry after he was denied the Arjuna award despite having qualifed in the new points system.

While the name of 7 candidates were forwarded to the selection committee for the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, not one of the candidates were named for the award. This is the first time since the year 1994 that the award has not been given to any athlete.

Apart from the controversies, the ceremony followed its predictable route where the traditions from the past years were observed this year as well. Awardees walked up to the podium to receive the honours from the President, while dignitaries such as Vice President M. Hamid Ansari and Sports Minister S. Sonowal applauded them.

Cricketer R. Ashwin was absent from the award ceremony as he was in England for the current ODI series. Awardees at the National Sports Award included the following. Akhilesh Verma was awarded in the field of archery. Tintu Luka won an award for athletics while H. N. Girisha was awarded for paralympics. For badminton, an award winner this year was V. Diju while Geetu Ann Jose won for basketball. For boxing, Jai Bhagwan received an award while Anirban Lahiri the golfer also received an award.

Mamta Pujari won an award for kabaddi while the winner for rowing this year was Saji Thomas. Heena Sidhu won the award for shooting while Anaka Alankamony won for squash. For volleyball, Tom Joseph received an international award while the honours also went to Renubala Chanyu for weightlifting and Sunil Rana for wrestling. Arjuna as well as Dhyan Chand and Dronacharya awardess won statuettes as well as citations. They were also awarded Rs. 5 lakh cash prizes. Those who won the Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar were awarded trophies.

The selection panel for this year's National Sports Award was cricketer Kapil Dev while other sportspersons on the panel included Anju Bobby George and Kunjarini Devi. Two media-persons were also part of the selection committee as were 3 government reps. The government representatives included SAI Director General Jiju Thomas.

With awards becoming controversies, it is no little wonder that even the most motivated sportspersons often talk about how little their sport is valued. While some sports have been developed in India, others are still light years behind. The Sports Ministry should look into this matter and ensure that award giving is all about respecting the honour of Indian sportspersons.