Many a hearts were broken last fortnight when the names of sports personalities who were honoured with Arjuna and Khel Rathna Awards for the year 2012 were announced by the Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs. Those, who could not make to the list, expressed their disappointment by blaming the Government as well as the sports bodies.
But how the winners of Arjuna Award, the country’s top sporting honour, are treated by various establishments is a matter of shame. An instance of India’s top squash player, who has been honoured with the Arjuna Award, getting humiliated and insulted by a new generation bank, has come to light with the victim moving the Consumer Redressal Forum in Chennai seeking a compensation of Rs 10 lakh.
Dipika Pallikkal, a top ranked player in the international professional squash circuit, approached the consumer court for what she describes as loss of reputation when her Axis Bank debit card transaction was declined in spite of her having sufficient balance in her account.
The incident occurred during a world championship at Rotterdam in 2011. Dipika said she stayed at the Brainpark Hotel in Rotterdam and while checking out she presented her Axis Bank debit card to settle the bill for Rs 30,000. Though she had contacted the bank in India through her mother, the officials were not at all helpful. She had to settle the bill with another debit card. But what traumatised and pained her were snide comments made by some of the foreign players about her credit-worthiness and India.
Dipika told the court that the attitude of the bank traumatised her and she could not perform well in subsequent tournaments. This was not to be the end. In December 2011, Dipika received a cash award of Rs 1 lakh from the Union Sports Minister. Though she deposited the cheque with the Axis Bank, the bank returned it with the excuse that “the cheque was not drawn on us”.