Too many Khel Ratnas

There is reason to rejoice over the achievements of a few Indian women athletes at Rio who helped lift some of the gloom of an ineffectual national Olympics performance. But the conferring of Khel Ratnas on P.V. Sindhu, Sakshi Malik and Dipa Karmakar, besides shooter Jitu Rai, appears overdone, guided by a populist push with the government-nominated committee overreacting to the criticism over poor management of sport in the country. While no one grudges the rewards and incentives showered on the real performers — two medal winners and Dipa, who had a trailblazing run as a gymnast — the question is if an award like Khel Ratna, a kind of “sportsperson of the year” honour, should be handed out like this. There have been more than one Khel Ratna winner earlier too, but such precedents shouldn’t have led the committee to hand it out in this manner.

A better way to recognise sporting promise might have been to offer financial security plus the best infrastructure and coaching possible for them to compete internationally. It is best the government leaves sport to sportspersons rather than bureaucrats, who bring in the worst kind of political interference and nepotism in selecting athletes, while the meritorious have to fight for recognition on the basis of measurable performances. It’s the government’s duty to pump land and money into infrastructure, but otherwise leave sport alone. If distinguished sportspeople are put in charge of selections and running sports federations, there is some chance of Indian sport picking up from the abysmal levels it has sunk to, outside of cricket.