How important is an award? More so when it is the Khel Ratna – the highest sports award in the country? Clearly it is of significance. It is a vindication of what you have achieved and why you are the best in that particular year.
Make no mistake, if anyone deserved the Khel Ratna in 2024 it is Manu Bhaker. No Indian has ever won two medals at the Olympics and it is a no brainer she was the best in Paris 2024. And remember, she was almost on course to win a third medal and lost out in a shootout.
For her to not be nominated for the award is disappointing. The committee should have taken suo moto cognisance of the situation and just nominated her, putting an end to the controversy. It is not as if it hasn’t been done before and there is precedence. What this controversy does is it reduces the value of the award and also does disservice to whoever gets it.
For example, if Harmanpreet Singh gets it, and may I say it is hugely deserved, the talk will still be about Manu. And that’s where the problem is. Harmanpreet wouldn’t be able to enjoy the award because the narrative has been set. It is one of controversy more than anything else, and that’s not what you want when it is about the Khel Ratna. Administrators should have done better and protected the sanctity of the award. Also, they should have kept in mind what a controversy might do and how such a narrative is unwelcome.
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— Manu Bhaker🇮🇳 (@realmanubhaker) December 24, 2024
I’d have also liked for Gukesh to be nominated. So what if the world championship was not over yet by the time of nominations. He had already won the candidates and in all fairness India’s best male achiever for 2024 is Gukesh. Yet again he could have been nominated by the committee, for you need to give the awards to the most deserving.
Coming to Manu, yes it is hurtful and disappointing. Yes, she will feel every bit hard done by what has happened. But that’s where it should end. She did what she did because she wanted to be out there in Paris for India and win medals. Nothing compares to standing on an Olympic podium and no award can match that. That’s what she said in her Instagram post. All she should do is take it as a challenge and go one better in LA28. If she wins Gold, no awards committee can ever ignore her claim and that’s what should be the focus. Crying foul, Manu knows, will not make things better and will only stir the hornet’s nest. Manu is an athlete and the range is her temple. All she needs to do is get back and make a point with her pistol. Bureaucracy isn’t where she belongs and she can’t lose herself in the politics of red-tape.
Also she isn’t the first or the last to fall victim to such administrative lapses. Dhyan Chand still doesn’t have a Bharat Ratna and one wonders why? In cricket, Sachin Tendulkar once told me that he was removed from captaincy without even being told. All he did was say to himself that you can take the captaincy away from me but you can’t do anything to my cricket. Thereafter he scored 25 more centuries and 10000 more runs. That’s the statement- he is the greatest to have ever played the sport.
Manu should follow this example. She, by her own admission, is a Tendulkar fan and will do well to emulate her idol. She also has Abhinav Bindra to look up to. For him, he has no idea where all his medals are. “It was never about the medals. It was about becoming the best version of yourself,” said Abhinav. For Manu, the world is her oyster. The Khel Ratna nomination is a very minor glitch.
Also Read: World Championships on home soil will inspire young Para athletes – Yogesh Kathuniya