Khel Ratna Award and Controversies

Kumar · Post by **Kumar** » Mon Aug 11, 2003 4:42 am

Seems like indian govt cannot do anything properly. Now there is a controversy as to who should have gotten Khel Ratna award. Please see this article

http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2003 ... 591700.htm

see also the golden ladyof indian athletics, mouthing off her opinion
http://www.hinduonnet.com/stories/2003081101152000.htm

Kumar · Post by **Kumar** » Sat Aug 23, 2003 6:01 am

Khel Ratna award to be shared by Anjali and Beenamol

http://www.hinduonnet.com/stories/2003082307431700.htm

david · Post by **david** » Tue Feb 03, 2004 7:44 am

Ugh! Now Beenamol gets Padma Shri

mugu · Post by **mugu** » Tue Feb 03, 2004 7:06 pm

Four years years after Sunita Rani got her Padma Shree for a silver and a bronze at the 1998 Asian Games. And to think that Anjali Vedpathak is yet to get it. To think that someone like Harbinder Singh (triple Olympian in hockey) is yet to get it, not to forget Ashok Kumar, Zafar Iqbal, Merwyn Fernandes. Incidentally, Jyotirmoyee Sikdar got both the athletics golds that India won in the 1998 Asian Games, but when the time came her name was omitted and Sunita (one silver, one bronze) was brought in. Talk of political manipulations in state awards, you can't beat this one!

david · Post by **david** » Wed Feb 11, 2004 2:26 pm

Sikdar got the Khel Ratna award after Asiad, maybe in 1999.

mugu · Post by **mugu** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 7:07 am

Sikdar got it for 1998-99, Dhanraj Pillay for 1999-2000.
Since Sikdar got Khel Ratna for her 1998 performance, it was all the more surprising that when it came to Padma Shree, Sunita Rani was preferred. I

suresh · Post by **suresh** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 2:59 am

This thread is prompted by the anguish expressed by Bobby Aloysius on missing out
on the Arjuna awards. The report added that she has announced her retirement.

I have no problem with Bobby feeling bad about it. However, there is a more general issue
to which I would like to hear from the forumites?

Shouldn't all of us, not just athletes, do things that we love and not worry about awards,
especially in a country such as ours, where there are million other factors which play
an important role?

BSharma · Post by **BSharma** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 4:20 am

Are awards the ultimate goal of an athlete?

Before I try to answer this question, we should look at the reasons why awards are given. Basically the awards are given for:

1. Recognition
2. Encouragement
3. Appreciation

Awards if given properly will enhance the performance of the athletes. On the other hand, improper selection of athletes for awards and failure to recognize the deserving candidates can ruin the career of some athletes.

Are awards the ultimate goal of an athlete? My answer is no but if used correctly, the awards can significantly improve the standard of sports in a country.

Kumar · Post by **Kumar** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 5:47 am

Suresh, I disagree... Especially in India, Awards are very important for athletes..

1) It gives them recognition, bonus, promotions and Well Deserved money!!!

Our athletes who are probably never going to win anything big at the world stage, this awards are their goals.

Are awards the ultimate goal of an athlete? My answer is no

Awards may not be the ultimate goal an athlete should have!!! But Awards are very important to an athlete and without awards Athletes lose some motivation!!!

But having said that, Arjuna Award has turned out to be a farce and it is high time either Government follow the Qualification Rules or altogether Scrape the awards!!! Please see the article in Hindu, wherein Rajinder singh was awarded the Dronacharya award in HOckey for coaching the junior team to world junior title !!

http://www.hindu.com/2004/09/16/stories ... 502100.htm

mugu · Post by **mugu** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 7:38 am

Bobby's anguish is understandable. Having slogged it for the better part of her life, she would have wanted to retire with the Arjuna Award. Instead, she has quit in disgust, an extreme reaction all right, but one that should make the authorities wonder what is wrong with our system.
The Arjuna award is the minimum that an Indian sportsperson aspires in terms of an award. Having crossed 30, Bobby knows her career is coming to an end. She had to have something to keep herself motivated. She had suffered disappointments, non-selection to Bangkok Asiad, Sydney Olympics etc. Now, this. She apparently couldn't stand it.
Hope Bobby reconsiders her decision. She should go for the next Asian Games even if she thinks age might not be on her side by the Beijing Games.
Should awards be the motivating factor for an athlete? How many of us in our offices will keep working at our peak, if week after week, if month after month, if year after year, several other people go away with the awards, if such awards are in vogue? And if we know that we are better than them? And we have achieved/shown better results?
Look up: http://www.bobbyaloysius.com

suresh · Post by **suresh** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 2:35 am

Please read my statement carefully before disagreeing. It included the phrase "especially in a country such as ours" before disagreeing with it in totality. I am also making precisely the following point made by Mugu.

mugu wrote: How many of us in our offices will keep working at our peak, if week after week, if month after month, if year after year, several other people go away with the awards, if such awards are in vogue? And if we know that we are better than them? And we have achieved/shown better results?

Those of us who work in India have to live with this reality -- awards or even simple things
like promotions or salary raises do not follow from achieving something significant
in what one does. So the drive to excel has to come from within inspite of living in a sea
of mediocrity not forgetting for a moment that the real competition is elsewhere.

One does also not gain anything by dwelling on things such as these.
So it is with this sense, I feel that Bobby, who IMHO, deserves the Arjuna award, should
worry about getting to 2m and not be afraid to fail in the attempt by being secure knowing
that she has tried her best. That is what will be remain when one becomes old,
not the awards, not the money.

As more and more people have this attitude, I am sure that the tide will turn and the
country will improve because it is us people who make up the country.

mugu · Post by **mugu** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 3:14 pm

suresh wrote:Please read my statement carefully before disagreeing. It included the phrase "especially in a country such as ours" before disagreeing with it in totality. I am also making precisely the following point made by Mugu.
One does also not gain anything by dwelling on things such as these.
So it is with this sense, I feel that Bobby, who IMHO, deserves the Arjuna award, should worry about getting to 2m and not be afraid to fail in the attempt by being secure knowing that she has tried her best. That is what will be remain when one becomes old, not the awards, not the money.
As more and more people have this attitude, I am sure that the tide will turn and the country will improve because it is us people who make up the country.

Agree with your philosophy partially. But look at it from Bobby's angle. She had her ambitions, she had her goals. Not all of them achieved. She needed something at this stage to push herself on. She had just failed in her bid to qualifyf or the Olympics final. She had earlier achieved one of her aims for the year, that of qualifying for the Olympics. Jumping 1.91 was no mean achievement.
She missed the Arjuna for three years. She was sad, but she kept quiet. She is one of teh rare Indian sportspersons who can take such things rather philosophically. She knew her chance will come. This year had to be the chance. Yes, she will be ruing her missed chance at the Manila Asian championships last year. But high jump is like that, 1.80, I think she managed there. Soemone who could clear 1.84 without a hassle.
But she had, at least she thought, a good perfiormance in her Afro-Asian silver at 1.88. They didn't even consider it! Going back she had plenty, Asian Games silver, Asain gold etc etc.
Bobby knows that from now onwards it would be tough for her. You have to show an achievement for the year concerned. So, she will have to win something in 2005 or 2006. How long can you live on hope. She had jumped all these years not thinking about Arjuna award and as you say she kept posting her own targets.
Now, she thinks, at least in the heat of the moment, that it is futile to continue in this sport. She has to have a family she has to think about her future; she cannot be slogging in England all the time.
From the outside, I can also become philosophical and say sport is all about challenges, just as life is.
If we carry on in life as well as in our jobs without recognition even when we feel that we deserve some, it might be because 1) we are not good in running our own business, 2) our forefathers have not left a fortune, 3) we are not in the mood to experiment with a change of jobs 4) we are simply mentally tired in trying anything drastic.
Bobby is slightly better off here. She can afford to chuck this.
PS: I also feel she should not!

suresh · Post by **suresh** » Sat Sep 18, 2004 4:56 am

From the outside, I can also become philosophical and say sport is all about challenges, just as life is.
If we carry on in life as well as in our jobs without recognition even when we feel that we deserve some, it might be because 1) we are not good in running our own business, 2) our forefathers have not left a fortune, 3) we are not in the mood to experiment with a change of jobs 4) we are simply mentally tired in trying anything drastic.

My statement is far more general, encompasses more than sports. So I am not
commenting from the outside but rather from the inside. There is a fifth possibility
(maybe more) to which I belong. My definition of success is not measured in
tangible terms but in terms of intangibles such as "Have I done good work?"
"Have I given in my best effort", "the response of my peers all around the world,
not India alone, to my work". Quite often it does not coincide with the bureaucratic
notion of success but I just don't care.

From what you have said about Bobby, her basic instincts seem similar to mine.
I think the retirement is an immediate reaction to the news but her better sense
will prevail.

sunnyd · Post by **sunnyd** » Sat Sep 18, 2004 3:04 pm

I don't think athletes should compete only to get awards.

In any walk of life, you should always aim to be the best at what you do.

The thing with sports awards is that many of them are given on basis of reputation rather than perfmormance. It evens happens in international sports awards.

mugu · Post by **mugu** » Sat Sep 18, 2004 3:18 pm

sunnyd wrote:I don't think athletes should compete only to get awards.

I think Bobby will agree with you there!
She continued to be compete in 2001 despite being ignored for the award after her Asian championship-winning performance in 2000.
She continued to compete in 2002, after being again ignored for her Asian title, and finished fourth in the Commonwealth Games (only two other Indian women athletes have done better) and won the silver in the Asian Games
She continued to compete in 2003, aiming for Olympics qualification, achieved it with a National record of 1.91 (should rank among the top 20 on the all-time Asian performances)
She and her husband put all their earnings into her training stints in Finland, Russia and England (part of the money recovered through Govt grants later) in order to achieve the goal of winning a medal in Olympics.
Of course that did not happen. Nor could she qualify for the Olympics final.
And yet, now sunnyd, you say ``I don't think athletes should compete ONLY to get the awards.''
Can you tell me please, what prompts you to say Bobby has been competing all these years (she is 30-plus) ONLY TO GET AWARDS?