The happiest and sanest decision by the Government to rename the National Sports Day after the legendary hockey wizard Dhyanchand has immensely gladdened sports lovers, who peculiarly used his birthday August 29 but never took his name. So, hardly would people of the world know it has so much to do with the legend.Lately in 2011 when there was news of including sportspersons for Bharat Ratna, quite a few eminent Indians began pleading in vain with the Prime Minister and influential members of the political executive to bestow the country’s topmost honour posthumously on Dhyanchand first as he was the most deserving.
But the design being a sinister one, no one paid heed. In 2011, the UPA Government had realised their days were numbered. So, some of the fertile-brain strategists came up with a novel idea that they imagined could get for the ruling outfit all the youth votes from across the country. That was the second lucky term after dislodging Vajpayee by some stroke of luck in 2006. So, the UPA fellows zeroed in on the cricket entertainer Tendulkar, who, if elevated to super hero status, the spoilt, lazy, dysfunctional, cricket-mad, idle young people of India would pour out all votes in favour of the UPA.
So, one Bharat Ratna was kept away to be bestowed on the billionaire cricket batsman to woo the under-40 Indians that would go any length to see a cricket guy of stature being kind of deified. But unfortunately for them, the qualifying criteria could not accommodate Sachin. Incidentally, the Bharat Ratna was instituted on January 2, 1954 only to be conferred in recognition of exceptional service/performance of the highest order without distinction of race, occupation, position or sex. It was strictly limited to achievements in the fields of arts, literature, science, and public services only.
For sports and other domains, there were too many top-grade awards and prizes in place. Most of coveted sports awards had already been grabbed by Sachin Tendulkar by then- ‘Dronacharya’, ‘Eklavya’ and ‘Rajeev Khelratna’ and more.
So, the crafty UPA strategists, simply with a stroke of pen, expanded the criteria to include ‘any field of human endeavour’ in December 2011. The recommendations for the Bharat Ratna are made by the Prime Minister to the President with a maximum of three nominees being awarded per year. The new rules for eligibility were notified on November 16. There was hardly any hue and cry except for a few concerned people reacting to the conspiratorial move by the Congress biggies to garner votes by guile. The dissenting, timid voices died down too soon as the real big people of India didn’t care about the grave issue.
They never spoke up. And Tendulkar was awarded the Bharat Ratna being chosen above true legends like Dhyanchand who had made India permanently proud by bringing historic hockey gold medals from the Olympics games across years.
Prior to all this UPA conspiracy, the Allahabad-born Dhyanchand had been pushed into oblivion. People had merrily deleted him from memory as cricket had captivated them entirely by then. By the mid-1960s Dhyanchand had settled down in native Jhansi by choosing to melt away into a nonexistent state. He had become so insignificant and unwanted by then that he, just to remain in good mental state, grabbed little offers of coaching school students.
The Sainik School Bhubaneswar had hired him for quite some time in 1968. He would spend time with young boys in ordinary, some even mended, shirts and trousers and roam about in the quiet campus after sharing skills with the young boys at the fields. And only if requested, would he narrate nostalgically the exciting days of lost glory. After the quiet, insignificant Odisha stint, no one seemed to miss him.
A few years later, Dhyanchand developed health problems that lasted until his last days. Left alone at home, he felt sad, perhaps bitter, about the way his countrymen, the Government and the hockey federation treated him after he gave up the stick due to age. Two months before he died on December 3, 1979 at the age of 74, he made a remark that indicated of his state of mind, "When I die, the world will cry, but India's people will not shed a tear for me, I know them."
A couple of months earlier, his son Ashok Kumar, while playing hockey, had been informed of his father's serious condition. He left the fields to rush Dhyanchand to Delhi from Jhansi by train. The AIIMS Delhi was considerate to admit the ignored legend for treatment. But no one treated him like a VIP because the people of India had not elevated him to his legitimate status.
He kept saying to his other son Raj Kumar that he felt very sad at the decline of Indian hockey as after the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, India had relegated hockey to the garbage yard. Dhyanchand had even said to the curious doctor, "Hockey in India is finished." Shortly after saying this, he slipped into a coma and died a few hours later on the chilly day. He was cremated at the Jhansi Heroes ground. His very own Punjab Regiment accorded him full military honours.
And his son Ashok suffered a final insult from Indian hockey officials who refused to let him attend the camp for the 1980 Moscow Olympics for having reported late as he remained busy completing his father's death rituals. In sheer disgust, Ashok too announced his retirement from hockey prematurely.
Now that hockey has regained lost glory, Dhyanchand is back to centre-stage fame and glitter. The legend has been resurrected in full glory. The National Sports Day will keep him live forever. The Odisha Government must be hailed for restoring the dignity of hockey. If it had not patronised the game in the nick of time, Dhyanchand would not have loomed large on the National Sports Day.