Revamp process to select sports awardees
Every time a Government announces the recipients of the Padma (or the Arjuna or Khel Ratna or Dronacharya) awards for sportspersons, there are howls of protest from commentators and those left out, that the selection of the names had been flawed and driven by partisan interests; and that some of the selected ones were undeserving of the honour. The latest addition to this cry is that of ace badminton player Saina Nehwal, who claimed that she had been initially wrongly bypassed for the Padma recognition while a less deserving, wrestling icon Sushil Kumar, had been considered.
There can be differing opinions over the episode: That Ms Nehwal had the right to protest as she was definitely deserving; that, although she was deserving and had the right to claim what was due to her, she had no business running down Mr Sushil Kumar; that, regardless of the merit in their being deserving, it is unbecoming of sportspersons to seek and even lobby — either directly or through coercive action, as in Ms Nehwal's case — for Government recognition.
But where there cannot be any dispute is that the process of selecting the awardees is far from being appropriate, and definitely less than transparent. And it is here that the attention of the Government and the various sports organisations, who dutifully forward potential names to the Centre, must be focussed. The Government should work to revamp the procedure and reduce — if it cannot altogether eliminate — the discretionary powers which form the seed of the controversy. Of course, since it is the Government which doles out the awards, its role cannot be done away with.
However, it is entirely possible that the Government respects the opinion of a panel which has credibility by virtue of comprising distinguished people not necessarily connected to politics or having known political leanings. The members of the panel should be guided by parameters that are largely uncontestable in the selection process. What presently happens, not always but generally, is that honchos of powerful sports bodies are able to push through the names of their choice, whereas others that are not placed in a similarly privileged position get a raw deal. As a result, deserving sports personalities are left out of the honours. This has happened on a number of occasions in the past, and will continue to happen if the system is not changed. The Narendra Modi Government has received a mandate for change, and that mandate extends to ensuring a just recognition of our sportspersons.
The administration can build upon past initiatives in this regard, although there will still be a lot of work to be done. For example, in the aftermath of the 2001 Milkha Singh-Rachna Govil controversy, the selection process had been tweaked. The selection committee was re-constituted, under Prakash Padukone, to include more eminent sportspersons and fewer sports bureaucrats. Also, the selection criteria were better clarified and a rating system for greater transparency put in place. But even that system came in for criticism, with some complaining that it gave more weightage to participation rather than performance and that the importance of different tournaments (the Olympics versus a Word Cup versus the Commonwealth Games) had not been weighed properly.