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In reports that emerged from TOI yesterday, it has come to light that if not for a major change by the government in its ruling, sportspersons would have continued to be denied the Bharat Ratna – India’s highest civilian honour.
Past files accessed with the help of the Right To Information (RTI) tool, have come to reveal how the Home ministry was initially not receptive to the idea of opening up the Bharat Ratna to other disciplines such as sports, trade and industry, fearing an unmanageable spike in the amount of requests that would come in.
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The decision was however reversed and changed the qualification criteria from “exceptional service towards the advancement of art, literature and science, and in recognition of public service of the highest order” to reflect “exceptional service in any field” in November 2011.
The RTI was filed by an activist called S.C. Agrawal.
In one of the notes, a ministry official had in fact even argued in favour of keeping the norms as they were, “The reason behind inclusion of sports as a field of Bharat Ratna is to honour Shri Sachin Tendulkar. No doubt Shri Tendulkar deserves the highest recognition of the country but there are several other sportsperson who have made the country proud such as Major Dhyan Chand in hockey, Jaspal Rana in shooting, Vishwanathan Anand in chess, P T Usha in athletics and many more.”
Home Minister P. Chidambaram had a crucial role to play in overruling this criteria as he was of the opinion that “Bharat Ratna be considered a decoration for advancement in any field instead of a limited number and be qualified to include only exceptional cases.”
The view from PC also had the backing of PM Manmohan Singh and then President Pratibha Patil.
The issue first came to light when Ajay Maken, the then sports minister, nominated cricketing great Sachin Tendulkar for the award. Writing in a letter dated April 2011, Maken had said that sports acted as a binding force in a pluralistic society and helped nurture national pride.
“It has become one of the most potent tools of involving youth and citizen away from divisive tendencies. Hence sports should be included as an area of recognition for the conferment of the Bharat Ratna,” he had said.
MP Madhusudan Yadav also had sent in a request along the same lines. In addition to this, the government also received letters to the contrary, asking that Tendulkar not be presented with the award.
However, in the end, the Home Minister and the ministry pushed ahead the change eventually paving the way for sportspersons to qualify for the country’s most prestigious award.
