Will late Dhyan Chand get Bharat Ratna this time?

• Chand joined the Indian Army at the age of 16 and took up hockey while he was still enrolled. Since Dhyan Singh used to practice a lot during the night, he was given the nickname “Chand” by his fellow players; his practice sessions at night invariably coincided with the coming out of the moon. ‘Chand’ means moon in Hindi.
• Dhyan Chand was the leading goal-scorer at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics with 14 goals. A news report about India’s victory said“This is not a game of hockey, but magic. Dhyan Chand is, in fact, the magician of hockey.”
• Even though Dhyan Chand was involved in many memorable matches, he considers a particular hockey match to be his best.“If anybody asked me which was the best match that I played in, I will unhesitatingly say that it was the 1933 Beighton Cup final between Calcutta Customs and Jhansi Heroes.”
• In the 1932 Summer Olympics, India beat USA 24-1 and Japan 11-1. Dhyan Chand scored 12 goals while his brother Roop Singh netted 13 out of the 35 goals India scored. This led to them being dubbed the ‘hockey twins’.
• Once, when Dhyan Chand was unable to score in a match, he argued with the match referee about the measurement of the goal post. To everybody’s amazement, he was right; the goal post was found to be in contravention of the official minimum width prescribed under international rules.

 A long pending demand of hockey lovers of India may soon be fulfilled. Sports Minister of India Vijay Goel has written to the Prime Minister’s  office  requesting Prime Minister Narendra Modi to consider the “sentiments of hockey fans” and “duly award the legend Major Dhyan Channd for his astonishing achievements”.

Following his letter to the PMO, Goel expressed confidence that PM Modi would give his consent to what would be a “fitting tribute” to the “son of the soil”.

“Dhyan Chand will be the best sportsperson to receive the award. His credentials as a legendary hockey player are unmatchable. He will always remain the pride

of India. Bharat Ratna would be a fitting tribute to him,” Goel said.

“The final decision would obviously be taken by the PM. But I am confident that Dhyan Chand would get the honour this time around,” Goel added.  Dhyan Chand won three gold medals for India at the Olympics — in Amsterdam (1928), Los Angeles (1932) and Berlin (1936). He passed away in 1979.

Dhyan Chand would have become the first sportsperson to receive the honour in 2014, but the then Congress-led UPA government had decided to confer the award on batting legend Sachin Tendulkar, who had retired from international cricket in November 2013.

In fact, hours after Tendulkar’s retirement on November 16, 2013, the Congress government had made an official announcement to give the Bharat Ratna to him. The Sports Ministry  and the Home Ministry, however, had recommended Dhyan Chand’s name for the prestigious award to the PMO.

Last year, the clamour for Bharat Ratna to Dhyan Chand had again resurfaced when former hockey captains and Olympians — Ajit Pal Singh, Zafar Iqbal, Dilip Tirkey and Dhyan Chand’s son Ashok Kumar — had sit on a protest at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, a day before the National Sports Day on August 29.

According to the laid out procedures, the PMO will send the recommendation to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), which, in turn, will consider the Sports Ministry’s request. If the MHA approves the request, it will recommend Dhyan Chan’s name to the Bharat Ratna committee, headed by the PM. If this committee approves his name for the award, then the file will be forwarded to the President for his final consent.