Push for sport in Ratna list

New Delhi, July 22: The Union home ministry is learnt to have endorsed and forwarded to the Prime Minister’s Office a proposal to include sport in the Bharat Ratna category, an administrative process that can culminate in the selection of Sachin Tendulkar for the highest civilian honour. Till now, the honour has been awarded for “exceptional service towards advancement of art, literature and science, and in recognition of public service of the highest order”. On April 15, sports minister Ajay Maken sent a note to the home ministry recommending the inclusion of sport in the list. P. Chidambaram this week forwarded the letter to the Prime Minister’s Office with “positive observations”, sources said. Neither Maken nor Chidambaram has named Tendulkar, but the timing of the sports minister’s note — days after India’s World Cup victory — makes the connection clear. Maken, a Tendulkar fan, wrote to Chidambaram: “I write to you knowing that you are an ardent sports lover....” He claimed that sport “singularly surpasses any other idea... as a cohesive force and nurtures our national pride” and helped fight “divisive tendencies”. Although many MPs and fans had demanded that the Bharat Ratna be conferred on Tendulkar, a counter-opinion also exists. Last year, The Telegraph had said in a leading article that the authorities should not get “carried away by popular sentiment” and confer the Bharat Ratna on Tendulkar. The leading article on March 4, 2010, had asked if sport counted as “a serious enough sphere of achievement”. “...And if it does, should cricket have top priority?” it added, citing how the game was played in a handful of countries and rarely attracted top athletes, who pursued more strenuous games. The article had acknowledged Tendulkar’s fine qualities of batsmanship as well as many records and placed them in context. Last February, The Telegraph columnist Ashok Mitra had warned that handing the award to Tendulkar might open the floodgates for fans to demand similar honour for, say, the tennis star of the day, or film stars. “It is a predicament the authorities could face any day now: to decide whether to weigh on the same scale the great nation-builders at one end and the hugely successful, hugely rich professional persons at the other,” Mitra wrote. “The only way out is to abandon altogether the Republic Day awards.” Officially, Bharat Ratna recommendations are made by the Prime Minister, Vice-President and the leader of the Opposition, and the President makes the choice.