Most of the days after reading the newspapers, I only get frustrated with a feeling’What on earth is India becoming?’. But today was the day, when it got me ecstatic. Harbhajan singh has finally won one of the highest civilian awards in the country. Why, hasn’t it been too late for him to get one? And there is no need to elaborate why he has got the award(no one has elaborated for that matter). Still, for those who did not realize, let me try to explain why he got the award:
Padma awards are for contributions in various fields which include sports. Harbhajan singh is an extraordinary cricketer and his contribution has been immense. His spat between Andrew symonds drew lot of publicity and there was absolutely no fault in his . he only said, "Teri M " and it was not the racist "Monkey". Whole of India felt proud at that moment. They did not ban him from Cricket and it was only a one test ban. Can it get any better to get an award?
His monkey like gesture on the field was only because it came naturally to him and it was not meant to demean any person. Inference to any person living or dead was only coincidental. His bhangra on the field made millions of cricket fans happy.
. if you did not understand I meant to be sarcastic till now, I am sorry .
Let us not talk about cricket. If he has done extremely well in Cricket he should be getting a Arjuna award(an award for sportspersons). Not a Padma shri, cetainly. Actually as far as I can remember, Harbhajan has done nothing to get any sort of award. He is just another cricketer signing up for ads and making money.
If Harbhajan can get it, I can only surprised why Mohammed Azharuddin, or Manoj Prabhakar or Ajay Jadeja did not get it? Who selects people for award and who nominates? If it was me, I would have nomiated Sehwag. There was one incident in Srilanka when Sehwag refuesed to take a single when he was on 199! For the team’s sake . cannot think of anybody who has done it before . All I know is Sachin Tendulkar wasting 20 deliveries to get to 100. Sehwag’s, to me, is something that sets example for teamwork. To put team ahead of anything. That deservers an award along with his contribution for India’s success since the Perth test in Australia .
Silly choices like Harbhajan’s can even reduce the respect for the highest awards in the country .
Cheers,
Vinayak