NEW DELHI: After wrestler Bajrang Punia’s nomination for the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award on Friday, one more name emerged to be nominated for the coveted award — Rio Paralympics silver medallist Deepa Malik. Apart from the two Khel Ratna nominations, the 12-member committee has decided to pick 19 athletes, including two para-athletes, instead of the usual 15 for Arjuna Awards.
Tajinder Pal Singh Toor and Mohammed Anas Yahiya are among the top stars from athletics nominated for the Arjuna Award. Boxer Sonia Lather, kabaddi star Ajay Thakur, cricketer Ravindra Jadeja, goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh and motorsports athlete Gaurav Singh Gill are among the other prominent names who figured on the Arjuna list. Gill finally made the cut after years of rejections. Along with Tejinder, his coach Mohinder Singh Dhillon too has been nominated for the Dronacharya Award under the regular category.
While most of the nominated names are deserving candidates, eyebrows were raised with the exclusion of badminton star HS Prannoy. Another big name missing out for the Dhronacharya Award was former India shooter Jaspal Rana, under whom the pistol shooters had a tremendous year in 2018.
Another inclusion is former India cricketer and sitting BJP MP Gautam Gambhir’s coach Sanjay Bhardwaj, who has been nominated for Dronacharya Award in lifetime achievement category. Interestingly, Sanjay’s name has been forwarded on a few earlier occasions as well. Badminton star Prannoy took to Twitter to vent his frustrations. “If you ever want your name in the Awards list, make sure you have people who will get your name to the list,” Prannoy tweeted.