Prime Minister Narendra Modi announces on his twitter handle that The Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award will be renamed to Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award.
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PM claims the remaining was with due respect to citizens’ sentiments
The highest sporting honour of India known as the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award has been changed to the name Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi makes the announcement today. This renaming of such a high-level award recognises the ultimate hockey hero and legend, Dhyan Chand.
According to Prime Minister, he claims that this move is based on the numerous requests he’s been receiving from citizens across the nation.
“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!” tweets the Prime Minister with #JaiHind.
Respect to the Hockey Legend on a legendary day
At the Tokyo Olympic 2021, yesterday, the men’s hockey team won an Olympic bronze medal after 41 years at the games since the 1980 Olympics in Moscow.
Furthermore, the women’s Hockey team was led by Rani Rampal giving viewers a thrill to Rio Olympics gold medalist Great Britain in the bronze medal match but lost the match 3-4.
In women’s hockey, India finished fourth, their best performance at the Games. The women’s hockey team put on quite a memorable show with the team spirits blazing high but narrowly missed out on a bronze medal.
Major Dhyan Chand is a prominent figure in sports and has won three Olympic golds for the country.
“His life and achievements have inspired generations of sportspersons who have achieved glory for India,” Sports Minister Anurag Thakur tweets after the announcement.
“Nothing against the move because we all respect Dhyan Chand Ji’s immense contribution but the government ought to do more than this to support sportspersons. They need facilities at the basic level, unless we can do that, mere renaming of awards won’t make much of a difference,” says Olympic bronze-winning boxer Vijender Singh.
