The Prime Minister has officially announced the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award to be renamed after the legendary hockey wizard Major Dhyan Chand.
The Prime Minister seemed very keen on both the Indian men’s and women’s hockey teams performance in the Tokyo Olympics. A video of Prime Minister Modi went viral as he had called the men’s hockey team who have just secured the bronze medal for Indian beating Germany 5-4 in a thrilling encounter for third place.
Moments after his tweets congratulating the women’s hockey team earlier today on their inspirational performance in the Olympics he had this to say in another tweet.
I have been getting many requests from citizens across India to name the Khel Ratna Award after Major Dhyan Chand. I thank them for their views.
Respecting their sentiment, the Khel Ratna Award will hereby be called the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award!
Jai Hind! pic.twitter.com/zbStlMNHdq
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 6, 2021
“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,” twitted the Prime Minister.
The Khel Ratna Award is the highest sporting honour in the country. The award was named after the former Prime Minister of India Rajiv Gandhi who served the office from 1984 to 1989.
The Khel Ratna is awarded annually to encourage sportsmen and sportswomen for their achievements in their respected field and further successes representing their country at the biggest stages in the sporting world. A twelve-member selection committee is constituted by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports who decides the winners in each discipline. The honour of the Khel Ratna comprises a medal, a certificate and a cash prize to the individual.
Some of the past recipients of the prestigious award have included MS Dhoni, Virat Kolhi, Sania Mirza, Vishwanath Anand, Sardar Singh, Rani Rampal, Dhanraj Pillay and Sachin Tendulkar.
