Facing criticism for ignoring Manu Bhaker from the list of recommended athletes for the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna award, the government announced that the Paris Games’ double Olympic medallist will receive the country’s highest sporting honour.
Manu’s name was included along with reigning World Chess champion D Gukesh, making 2024’s winners at four. Indian hockey captain Harmanpreet Singh and para-athlete Praveen Kumar had already been nominated for the award.
Chennai-based Gukesh recently became the youngest-ever world champion in chess history – at the age of 18 – when he defeated China’s Ding Liren in the FIDE World Championship in Singapore last month. He is only the second Indian after Viswanathan Anand to clinch the title. Ace drag-flicker Harmanpreet Singh captained the Indian men’s hockey team to a bronze medal-finish in Paris, and para-athlete Praveen Kumar was the gold medallist in the men’s high jump T64 class at the Paris Paralympics.
The athletes will receive their awards from the President of India, Droupadi Murmu, at a specially organised function at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on 17 January.
The govt’s announcement came nearly two weeks after TOI exclusively reported that Manu had not been recommended for the Khel Ratna by a 12-member awards selection committee appointed by the sports ministry, despite the 22-year-old from Haryana’s Jhajjar district becoming the first Indian athlete ever to clinch back-to-back Olympic medals in a single edition of the Olympics since independence.
Manu had created history in Paris after winning a bronze each in the women’s individual 10m air pistol and in the mixed team event partnering Sarabjot Singh, cementing her place as one of the greatest Indian athletes in Olympic sports.
Her omission from the list of recommended athletes had created a huge furore, with TOI again reporting a day after citing sources that the ministry has been considering nominating her name for the Khel Ratna by using its executive powers vested in the provisions of the National Sports Day awards scheme.
The committee failed to take suo moto cognizance of Manu’s achievements during the awards cycle period (from Jan 1, 2020 up to the conclusion of Olympics/Paralympics Games 2024), where she won several medals at major multisport and international events, including two Olympic bronze.
Manu had later admitted that there was a lapse on her part in filing the Khel Ratna nomination but maintained that awards and recognitions aren’t her only goal and that playing and performing for the country is what keeps her motivated. However, the point was the committee should have taken cognizance of her achievements as a shooter over the years and recommended her name, as has been the cases in the past including that of cricketer Mohammed Shami, who hadn’t applied for the Arjuna award last year but was eventually bestowed the honour on the Indian cricket board’s (BCCI) insistence following a suo moto recommendation made by that year’s selection panel. Manu was honoured with the Arjuna in 2020.
Govt names 32 Arjuna awardees
The govt has announced a total of 32 sportspersons as recipients for last year’s Arjuna award – the country’s second highest sporting honour. These include 15 from able-bodied sports and 17 para-athletes. Interestingly, no Indian men or women cricketer has been selected for either the Khel Ratna or Arjuna after the govt didn’t receive any application from the BCCI. Among the recipients include medallists from both Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games, including men’s 57kg freestyle wrestler Aman Sehrawat, shooters Swapnil Kusale and Sarabjot, members of the men’s hockey team, who weren’t awarded with Arjuna on any of the previous occasions, and differently-abled sportspersons from para archery, para athletics, para badminton, para judo and para shooting.
Apart from the Paris Olympics/Paralympics medal winners, the list also includes sprinter Jyothi Yarraji, javelin thrower Annu Rani, women’s hockey team captain Salima Tete, world champion boxers Nitu Ghangas and Saweety, veteran swimmer Sajan Prakash, Olympiad gold-winning chess player Vantika Agrawal and squash star Abhay Singh.
India’s first Paralympic gold medallist honoured
Para swimmer Muralikant Petkar, who became India’s first Paralympics gold medallist, has been named for Arjuna in the lifetime achievement category. He won individual gold in the 50m freestyle swimming event at the 1972 Heidelberg Paralympics in West Germany. An Army man, Petkar’s inspiring tale of resurrecting himself as a para-athlete after being disabled due to bullet wounds sustained during the 1965 Indo-Pak war, was recently turned into a biopic, ‘Chandu Champion’.
Amit Saroha’s name missing from Dronacharya list
After eyebrows were raised on the nomination of four-time Paralympian and Arjuna awardee, wheelchair-bound para athlete Amit Kumar Saroha, for the Dronacharya award, the govt decided to strike off his name from the final list of awardees. According to sources, Saroha is an active para athlete who just participated in Paris and has been a Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) beneficiary for the last eight years. The govt cleared three coaches for Dronacharya in the regular category, including Kusale’s coach Deepali Deshpande.
