An Open Letter to the PM of India

Dear Prime Minister/ President/ Vice President,

I hope my words touch you as I put my heart and soul in writing this letter to you. Would like to keep my points as simple and crisp as possible.

Last Sunday, as I was quickly flipping channels of the television while having lunch, something caught my attention. There was a documentary being aired either on LSTV or RSTV (did not pay attention to the channel name as I was too engrossed in watching and had never thought of voicing my opinion about it while watching.)

The documentary was based on the life of Major Dhyanchand, one of the greatest hockey players of all time. People fondly called him the hockey wizard of India. He played for 22 years for India and for him hockey was not just a sport but his religion. Some of his major achievements are:

1. He won 3 gold medals, out of the total 9 that India has won, so far in Olympics-

Amsterdam in 1928

Los Angeles in 1932

Berlin in 1936

We struggle to win even a single gold medal these days. It was a hat trick in hockey for India when he played!

2. Dhyanchand was known for his excellent goal scoring feat. During his entire career, he scored 400+ goals and during his era, India was dominant in the sport and he was singlehandedly responsible for putting Indian hockey on the global map. This was the time when there was no sports infrastructure or facilities given to the players. There weren’t huge monetary or commercial gains either.

3. Doubting his technical skills to play the game, the players of Holland once broke his stick to check if there was a magnet inside. They were stunned when nothing was found.

4. Mesmerized by Dhyanchand’s magic, Hitler offered him German citizenship and promotion in the German military, which was politely turned down by him as he wanted to serve India and the love he had for his own country was supreme. Such was the aura of this simple man living a simple life, high on values and integrity, that he had a big fan following in Germany, England and Australia. Statues and a tube station have been built on foreign lands to honour him.

5. Post-retirement, he served as the chief hockey coach for several years, in Patiala.

So a big question that has been deeply hurting Indians is that why has this great legend been ignored by the government of India w.r.t. conferring Bharat Ratna – India’s highest civilian honour given for outstanding contribution in the field of art, science, sports or public service?

Till date, 45 eminent personalities have received the award since it started in 1954.

 A man of Dhyanchand’s stature not being given the highest civilian award is quite baffling and ironical especially when:

1. His own birthday 29th August is celebrated as National Sports Day every year in India.

2. Dhyanchand Lifetime Achievement award is given to sportspersons, by the GOI, which indeed is a big step in honouring him. However, the legend himself is yet to be given the most prestigious award. This is like, an employee performs exceptionally well in an organization and the management is rewarding him with goodies, vouchers, extra responsibilities but not giving him an official raise in the salary or promoting him/her, which is long due and more significant, prestigious, valuable and helpful to him. It feels like something is greatly missing!

Or it’s like giving scholarships to students, when the person in whose name the scholarship is being given, is himself living in misery.

It was extremely disheartening to know that in his last days he was grappling with poverty and battling a life-threatening disease like cancer, in a general ward!

He should have received this award way back in the 1930s. Dhyanchand Lifetime Achievement award started only in 2003 and his birthday was designated as national sports day only in 2012. That means the period from the 1930s till 2003 and 2012 were actually the years when this national hero was struggling to live a decent life, let alone a glorified one. How do governments who were in power during this period and even now, compensate for this? This also defies all logics that different ministers have been giving that he has already been honoured in several ways and hence Bharat Ratna is not required.

It’s not that awarding or not awarding him with Bharat Ratna would have any effect on the respect and admiration that millions of fans have for him, or on his game or sportsmanship when he was alive, however, it would just build more faith in our systems.

That feeling of heaviness, after watching the documentary, is still there, even though it’s been days. The reasons are:

1. He lived and died a tragic life.

2. The govt. did not do its bit when it was supposed to do.

Giving him the award would, however, delight his fans, and seeing the fans happy would bring solace and a smile on his face, from heaven.

I also urge the corporates and the common man to do whatever is in their power to come forward and help such heroes. We anyway do a lot of CSR activities. Let’s also do it for those who have brought laurels to our nation, especially when they are going through tough times. The same way as Akshay Kumar helped our soldiers and their families when they died serving our nation. That was a selfless act of kindness. A big thank you to him, and even Mr. Sunil Gavaskar, for randomly helping, the forgotten sportspersons.

Please do this not just because everyone is requesting, but because it is the right thing to do and a basic duty of those in power.

Regards,

A common man

Sources: A TV show, random news sites for statistics.