New Delhi: In the  celebratory din which followed the Narendra Modi government’s decision to remove former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi’s name from the Khel Ratna and brand it after Major Dhyan Chand, one fact that seems to have been ignored is that there are now two national sporting awards named after India’s hockey legend.

Of course, when dozens of stadiums and sporting tournaments in India can be named after Rajiv Gandhi – including the Rajiv Gandhi Kabaddi Tournament and the Rajiv Gandhi Roller Skating Championship (held in 2018 at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium in Bawana and in 2019 in the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium in Rohtak) – duplicating an award in Dhyan Chand’s name doesn’t seem like such a big deal. Except that the appeal of an award lies precisely in its unique character.

Ask any Nobel prize winner for, say, economics, how they would feel about a second Nobel prize for economics being instituted and awarded.

In fact, the existing Dhyan Chand Award for Life-time Achievement in Sports and Games – set up by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government in 2002 and given to over 70 sportspersons so far– is no mean award. It honours those who have contributed to sports and games by their performance and continue to contribute to the promotion of sports even after their retirement from active sporting career. Using the same name for another sporting award only ends up devaluing its importance for both sets of recipients.

And the fact that sportspersons who have already been conferred either with the Khel Ratna, Arjuna Award or Dronacharya Award are not eligible for the Dhyan Chand Award also makes the lifetime achievement award so special. 

So far, neither Modi nor any BJP leader has explained why they felt it necessary to rename the Khel Ratna Award after Dhyan Chand when another sports award already exists in his name.The prime minister claimed in a tweet on August 6 that this decision was prompted by the “many requests from citizens across India” he had received.

Modi also tweeted, “Major Dhyan Chand was among India’s foremost sportspersons who brought honour and pride for India. It is fitting that our nation’s highest sporting honour will be named after him.”

Ironically, Modi’s announcement about a second sports award in the name of the hockey giant comes just days ahead of National Sports Day, which is celebrated on August 29, the birthday of Dhyan Chand, following a decision of the Manmohan Singh government in 2012. This is also the day the Khel Ratna, Arjuna another sporting awards are handed out.

BJP leaders’ faux pas 

As several BJP leaders hurriedly issued congratulatory messages on the move, their attempts at politicising the issue also invited scorn from political watchers.Journalist Man Aman Singh Chhina took a dig at BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra for his tweet in which he thanked the Prime Minister for renaming the Khel Ratna Award.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi paying tributes to legendary hockey player Major Dhan Chand. 

Name Modi, Jaitley stadia after Milkha Singh: Congress

Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala has accused Modi of wanting to erase lines drawn by others since he did not know how to draw his own. He also accused the prime minister of slashing the budget for sportspersons.

However, Surjewala said his party supports the naming of anything after Major Dhyan Chand, and alleged that the Modi government was using the legendary hockey player’s name for doing petty politics. As for Rajiv Gandhi, he said, “He [Rajiv Gandhi] would remain an icon for the country.”He said he hoped that the prime minister would also name other stadia and schemes after Indian sportspersons.

Noting that the world’s largest cricket stadium at Motera in Gujarat was recently named after Modi and the Ferozeshah Kotla stadium in Delhi after former Union minister Arun Jaitley, Surjewala said: “Now that a beginning has been made, we want the Narendra Modi stadium and Arun Jaitley Stadium to be also named after Milkha Singh. The entire country will accept this decision of yours.” He was referring to the legendary athlete who passed away recently.

Repeated targeting of Rajiv to attack Gandhi family

If Surjewala and other Congress leaders have seen the Khel Ratna move as one more step by the BJP towards its goal of making India “Congress-mukt” (free of the Congress), this is because Modi and other senior BJP figures have often attacked Rajiv Gandhi as a proxy for targeting his family members, especially his son and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.

This time, too, the move to remove Rajiv Gandhi’s name from the Khel Ratna has come at a time when Rahul Gandhi is spearheading his party’s strategy on staging protests against the Modi government in parliament on the Pegasus issue and on supporting the farmers’ agitation against the farm laws. Rahul Gandhi’s name has also figured in the list of probable surveillance targets, with two of his numbers – besides two office aides and five friends – figuring in a leaked database that includes individuals against whom Pegasus spyware has been used.

In 2015, when Rahul Gandhi, as Congress vice-president, had questioned if a quid pro quo led to the government helping the former Indian Premier League (IPL) chief, Lalit Modi, in escaping from the country, the then external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj had attacked the Gandhi family personally.

Reacting to Rahul Gandhi’s charge that she had got money to help Lalit Modi, Swaraj said, during a discussion in Lok Sabha, that he should ask his “mamma… how much money had been taken from Quattrocchi” (Bofors accused). She also made a reference to Union Carbide chief Warren Anderson and said Rahul should also ask her “why did ‘daddy’ (Rajiv Gandhi) get the killer of 15,000 people released (after the Bhopal gas leak)”.

During the campaigning for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Modi had also attacked the Gandhi family, and Rahul Gandhi in particular, in a very caustic manner.

 

File photo of Sonia, Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi. 

Addressing a rally in Pratapgarh in Uttar Pradesh, Modi had directly attacked Rahul, who was accusing his government of corruption in the acquisition of Rafale aircraft, by bringing in Rajiv Gandhi and saying: “Your father was termed ‘Mr. Clean’ by his courtiers, but his life ended as ‘Bhrashtachari No. 1 (corrupt number 1)’.”