KHEL RATNA AWARD RENAMED AFTER MAJOR DHYAN CHAND

NEW DELHI: India’s highest sporting honour Khel Ratna Award, which was named after former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, was on Friday rechristened in the honour of hockey wizard Dhyan Chand following the admirable performance of both men’s and women’s hockey teams in the Tokyo Olympics.

While the ruling BJP hailed the announcement made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Home Minister Amit Shah calling it a true tribute to one of India’s greatest sportspersons, the Congress too welcomed it but accused Modi of having “myopic political motive” and demanded that he should also change stadiums named after him and late BJP leader Arun Jaitley. The prime minister tweeted that he had been getting many requests from citizens to name the Khel Ratna Award after Major Dhyan Chand.

“Respecting their sentiment, the Khel Ratna Award will hereby be called the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award! Major Dhyan Chand was among India’s foremost sportspersons who brought honour and pride for India. It is fitting that our nation’s highest sporting honour will be named after him,” he tweeted. At a press conference, Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said his party welcomes the decision. He then took a swipe at Modi for allegedly having “myopic political motive” in taking the decision. “We sincerely hope that now that a new beginning has been made, Modi ji will announce changing the name of Narendra Modi stadium and Arun Jaitley stadium and name them after legendary sportspersons like Milkha Singh, Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar, Kapil Dev, Leander Paes, PT Usha, Mary Kom, Abhinav Bindra and many many others,” he added.