Sachin Tendulkar's Bharat Ratna decision taken within 24 hours

Sachin Tendulkar

New Delhi: The decision to confer Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian honour, to batting legend Sachin Tendulkar was taken within 24 hours; it has been revealed following a response to an RTI query.

Tendulkar was playing his 200th Test in Mumbai on 14 November, 2013, when the process to give him the Bharat Ratna was underway.

On November 15, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had sent the proposal to confer the Indian legend with Bharat Ratna to President Pranab Mukherjee, revealed the RTI reply.

Sports enthusiast Hemant Dube who had sent the RTI query said that the decision was finalised within those 24 hours.

The RTI reply is a 14 page long document and was provided to Dube under the RTI Act. It was signed by Deputy Secretary and Central Public Information Officer Sayyed Irkam Rizwi.

Dube, who is a cancer patient, had sought the information on November 27 last year.

The PMO official, however, said that the office reserved the right to conceal the communication between the PM and the President. “The communication between the Prime Minister and the President is a privileged communication under the provision of Article 74(2)of the Constitution of India and is not to be disclosed. However, a copy of the relevant file noting and correspondence pertaining to the award of Bharat Ratna to Tendulkar excluding privileged communication running into 14 pages can be provided.”

Hemant Dube has also been trying to get the Bharat Ratna for the Hockey legend Dhyan Chand.