Sachin Tendulkar has become the first sportsperson to be decorated with the Bharat Ratna. Congratulations to him. To debate whether the commendation is a just desert would be cynical and unfair. Yet, giving fairness its due, none can ignore the reactive claims of the legions loyal to legends of less-visible sports.
The immediate urge of hockey fans to lobby the sports minister to confer the honour, considered by many to be long overdue, on Dhyan Chand is not against the grain. A master of the game, who mesmerized spectators at least as much as Sachin - though it is evident that even the most sizable gathering that greeted the former could not have outsized the mass of people the latter held in his thrall thanks to live feeds into living rooms, and moved a bigoted racial supremacist to purportedly swoop for his services - an episode reminiscent of the belligerent emperor soothed by a transcendental melody - certainly merits the country's highest civilian award for excellence on par with that of the recently retired batting maestro.
In the coming days, equally, we could see representations being made on behalf of icons from sports that have never enjoyed the fanfare of hockey in its heyday or of cricket in the present day. Icons who were synonymous with their sport for the brief period that the sport caught the eye of the press and thereby, of the common Indian. A Milkha Singh, who is still the first name that pops into the head of most of us upon the mention of athletics, is one such icon. It would be farcical to argue that he has not inspired later athletes as much as Dhyan Chand and Sachin have those who have taken to hockey and cricket, respectively, after them.
Vishwanathan Anand, who was to have his own homecoming moment but for the schedule of the World Chess Championship match in Chennai colliding with Sachin's farewell, has been a stalwart in a game that practically had no legacy before his advent, but for the vaunting claim that Chess' origin was Indian. He is a five-time World Champion who has breached and held his own in the Soviet stronghold. In pop-culture terms, he is the James Bond as far as Chess is concerned. That he has been the idol for Indian Grand Masters since is no secret. It must be remembered that Vishy was the first sportsperson to be accorded the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, not that his credentials need the grain of government recognition to reinforce his eligibility for the Bharat Ratna for sporting excellence. In the two decades since being awarded the Khel Ratna, he has soared to higher peaks of Chess.
Abhinav Bindra, the nation's only Olympic Gold medalist, would not be amiss as a contender for the Bharat Ratna, either. We cannot ignore the fact that an Olympic sport is pandemic and draws competitors from several regions of the world, though we may be a nation that is obsessed solely with cricket, endemic only to one-time British colonies.
Although I have touched upon these sporting icons inspiring the generations that followed them, the eligibility of a sportsperson to receive the Bharat Ratna cannot be held to be proportional to the radius of their sphere of influence. The Bharat Ratna, after all, is not the prize beckoning the winner of a reality TV show, to be chosen by the viewers via SMS. That the Bharat Ratna has been awarded to a sportsman for the first time serves to burnish its aura further as a recognition for phenomenal excellence in any field, no matter how esoteric the field may be, and widens the vista of worthies. This is a welcome move, for many of the recipients of the Bharat Ratna to date have been savants from specialized areas, be it the Carnatic vocalist Dr. M S Subbulakshmi or the Shehnai maestro Ustad Bismillah Khan. Politics, despite its seeming familiarity to all of us, is also an arcane vocation. And in picking politicians for the Bharat Ratna, it's been driven home, time and again, that it is not a reward of popularity.
Yet, there is one more change I would like to see. In a team sport, while one individual might display unparalleled excellence, his efforts may well have been complemented by another's orthogonal, unprecedented - yet not widely celebrated - virtuosity. To remain true to its spirit, the Bharat Ratna should be bestowed on the latter, too. I am, however, skeptical of this wish coming true. When most of these less-cheered sporting heroes have been overlooked for the Khel Ratna, could they be considered for the Bharat Ratna? As long as the Bharat Ratna and similar awards are subject to the discretion of the dispensation, they will constitute not only an homage to the recipient, but also a testament to the intense lobbying on their behalf.
Abhinav Bindra, the nation's only Olympic Gold medalist, would not be amiss as a contender for the Bharat Ratna, either. We cannot ignore the fact that an Olympic sport is pandemic and draws competitors from several regions of the world, though we may be a nation that is obsessed solely with cricket, endemic only to one-time British colonies.
Although I have touched upon these sporting icons inspiring the generations that followed them, the eligibility of a sportsperson to receive the Bharat Ratna cannot be held to be proportional to the radius of their sphere of influence. The Bharat Ratna, after all, is not the prize beckoning the winner of a reality TV show, to be chosen by the viewers via SMS. That the Bharat Ratna has been awarded to a sportsman for the first time serves to burnish its aura further as a recognition for phenomenal excellence in any field, no matter how esoteric the field may be, and widens the vista of worthies. This is a welcome move, for many of the recipients of the Bharat Ratna to date have been savants from specialized areas, be it the Carnatic vocalist Dr. M S Subbulakshmi or the Shehnai maestro Ustad Bismillah Khan. Politics, despite its seeming familiarity to all of us, is also an arcane vocation. And in picking politicians for the Bharat Ratna, it's been driven home, time and again, that it is not a reward of popularity.
Yet, there is one more change I would like to see. In a team sport, while one individual might display unparalleled excellence, his efforts may well have been complemented by another's orthogonal, unprecedented - yet not widely celebrated - virtuosity. To remain true to its spirit, the Bharat Ratna should be bestowed on the latter, too. I am, however, skeptical of this wish coming true. When most of these less-cheered sporting heroes have been overlooked for the Khel Ratna, could they be considered for the Bharat Ratna? As long as the Bharat Ratna and similar awards are subject to the discretion of the dispensation, they will constitute not only an homage to the recipient, but also a testament to the intense lobbying on their behalf.
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