Arjuna Awards: Panel meets for rollback today

The annual Arjuna Awards for sports are in the grip of a crisis once again. And it’s a piquant situation in Indian sports: the Arjuna A...

The annual Arjuna Awards for sports are in the grip of a crisis once again. And it’s a piquant situation in Indian sports: the Arjuna Award committee has been asked by the sports ministry to prune the list of awardees for this year after the committee had initially recommended 21 names, besides two for the country’s highest sports award — Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna.

On Saturday, the 13-member committee will review its decision. Former football international PK Banerjee, who’s the chairman of the committee will be reaching the Capital early morning from Kolkata. Bhupinder Singh, the member secretary of the Arjuna Award committee confirmed to The Indian Express that Banerjee would be present at the meeting to review the situation. The committee had initially resisted the ministry’s move to restrict the number of awardees to just 15. The committee’s logic was that in the period under purview, Indian sportspersons had excelled beyond expectations at the Asian and Commonwealth Games.

There is certainly scope for streamlining the awards: A number of medal-winners at the 2002 Commonwealth Games are not in the same league as the Asian Games winners. Except for women’s hockey team and performance in athletics, the competition was not high in other disciplines at the Commonwealth Games.

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The minister of state for sports Vijay Goel revealed that there was no guideline that the Khel Ratna award had to be given every year, if there were no deserving candidates. The committee has recommended athlete K Beenamol and shooter Anjali Bhagwat for the Khel Ratna. Though both of them have shown great potential, they cannot be put in the same category as the past winners, who were not merely champions in their field but had great impact on their peers.

Probably, the dilemma for the 13 members on the panel is that nobody wants to take the tough decision, and be seen as anti-sportspersons. One of the panel members said: ‘‘Strictly speaking, the list can be cut down but there is so much lobbying for the awards that those who will be dropped and their federations will blame us for not promoting the cause of sportspersons.’’

The Arjuna awards have been long under controversies. Now that there are sportspersons are on the panel, they need to show the way out. This time they can’t blame the babus in the sports ministry.