UMYAS denies recommending Dhyan Chand's name for Bharat Ratna

NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports today denied that it recommended the name of Indian hockey legend, Late Major Dhyan Chand for conferring of Bharat Bharat Ratna award in 2013-14.

"There is no such proposal from the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports recommending the name of Late Major Dhyan Chand for conferring of Bharat Ratna in 2013-14," the Sports Ministry said in response to a question asked in Rajya Sabha.

The Sports Ministry, however, said that on 16th July, 2013, Minister of state (IC) for youth affairs and sports and MoS for defence ( Jitendra Singh) had made suggestion to the PMO for awarding Bharat Ratna to the hockey wizard and the same had been noted by the then Prime Minister (Manmohan Singh).To another query on whether the Government wants to introduce any changes in the reviewing of the criterion of conferment of Bharat Ratna to any citizen of India, the Ministry responded: "Bharat Ratna is the highest civilian award of the county. It is awarded in recognition of exceptional service/performance of the highest order in any field of human endeavour.

"The recommendations for the Bharat Ratna are made by the Prime Minister to the President of India. No formal recommendations for this are necessary. There is no proposal to make any change in this regard."

The Prime Minister had recommended Bharat Ratna for cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar and scientist Professor CNR Rao in 2013. The President has since conveyed his approval to the conferment of the award on them.

The then Sports Ministry's choice was Dhyan Chand, but his case was not followed up much by the then PMO.