The Padma Shri awards are given by the Government of India generally to Indian citizens to recognize their distinguished contribution in various spheres of activity including the Arts, Education, Industry, Literature, Science, Sports, Social Service and Public Life. It is the fourth in the hierarchy of civilian awards after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. Uptill the year 2008, 2059 people have been given the Padma Shri since its institution in 1954.
The sports awards for the year 2009 have created a controversy as the Olympic medal winners who were short listed have been removed from the final list of awardees. This to my mind is gross injustice to the sportspersons – boxer Vijender Kumar and wrestler Sushil Kumar. In fact these two had created Olympic sporting history as far as India was concerned, by giving two bronze medals to India on the same day at the 2008 Beijing Olympics along with Abhinav Bindra’s shooting gold. We have never won anything apart from the 11 hockey gold/silver/bronze medals, wrestling medal to Jadhav (Helsinki) in 1952, Dr. Karni Singh bronze in shooting in 1964(Tokyo), bronze to Leandar Paes (Atlanta) in tennis, Karnam Malleswari in 2000 (Sydney) in weight lifting the silver medal to shooter Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore in the Athens Olympics in 2004.
In the sports section we have Dhoni and Harbhajan Singh who have been given awards. Dhoni may have won the T20 world cup, is a great captain for the future with a sensible head on his shoulders – but has he achieved enough to be given the fourth highest civilian award? What about Harbhajan Singh? His career has been raked by controversy and bad behavior – so what are we encouraging? Are the achievements of these two individuals in a team game played by a handful of nations in the world in any way superior to the achievements of Boxer, Vijender Kumar or Wrestler Sushil Kumar? These guys have won an individual bronze at the Olympics, the greatest sporting extravaganza on earth in which almost every country in the world participates! Their contribution is far greater in furthering the cause of sports in India than anything the cricketers can ever do. Cricket has the money power and the glamour to go with it – but that definitely does not justify the Padma Shri to Dhoni and Harbhajan above Vijender and Sushil. Unfortunately in India the masses and the politicians/bureaucrats preparing the final list of awardees only see cricket as our national game to the detriment of all other sports including hockey, which is supposed to be out national sport.
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2 comments:
i just cant understand how does dhoni qualify for the padma awards.
if the "people" say "cricket is a team game" then how the hell only dhoni qualifies for the padma awards.
i just cant understand when will this country forget cricket and look to other games.
if saina nehwal can break into the top 10 of the world badminton championship rankings, it is more important than the idiot T20 world cup.
I really agree with the views.
And the more I think about this, the more uneasy I get. The next most relevant question is what can we do about it now?
Or are terrorism and violence enough of a headache to bother about these?
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