Modi Plays Foul Again

By abhay mokashi

The renaming of the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award as Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a dishonour to India’s greatest hockey player, not of the former Prime Minister.

Modi’s contempt for the Nehru-Gandhi family is no secret. His low mentality was exhibited once again when he tweeted this morning that the Khel Ratna Award would now be called Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award! (The explanation mark is by Modi.) His aversion to even utter the name of Rajiv Gandhi is reflected in the tweet where he did not mention the full name of the award, he has renamed.

It can be argued that sports awards and stadia should be named only after sportspersons and not politicians. But that can be a policy to be implemented for the future, erasing names of members of the Nehru Gandhi family cannot undo the good work done by them as Prime Ministers of the country. They may have made some errors as Prime Ministers, but their contribution to the development and progress of the country in several fields can be denied only by Modi and his blind followers.

The naming of the Khel Ratna Award after Dhyan Chand is the insult of the hockey wizard who scored over 1000 goals in a career spanning two decades, since, there is already an award in his name—the Dhyan Chand Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sports and Games and this award is the highest sports award in the country; higher than the Khel Ratna Award.

So Modi has insulted Dhyan Chand not Rajiv Gandhi, by naming an award lower than the one already existing in Dhyan Chand’s name.

Modi uses Mahatma Gandhi also selectively, which is more for his political gains.  If he is a true follower of the Mahatma, he should remember that Mahatma Gandhi had said that one should practice before you preach. If Rajiv Gandhi’s name has to be removed, Modi should have first taken away his name from the stadium in Gujarat, which was earlier known as Sardar Patel Stadium.

In his tweet Modi has stated, “I have been getting many requests from citizens across India to name the Khel Ratna Award after Major Dhyan Chand. I thank them for their views….”

If Modi is serious about honouring people’s “requests” he should not ignore other requests from more people in the country, than those demanding that the Khel Ratna Award be renamed after Major Dhyan Chand.

People have been requesting and demanding of Modi jobs, reduction of fuel prices, protection of women, especially in Delhi, governments statement and a fair probe in the use of Pegasus spyware against individuals in the country, repealing of the farm laws, restoration of full civil rights in Jammu and Kashmir and an end to hate politics among other things.

Modi will obviously ignore all these important issues before the country.