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Of cricket, Bollywood and civilian honours

Posted on the January 28th, 2009 under General by premub

 

 

India’s highest civilian honours, doled out on Republic Day and many a time carrying the stamp of political patronage and  petty considerations rather than an aura of excellence, has caught in its vortex a former beauty queen-turned-actress and two sportspersons. — the former for her inclusion and the latter for exclusion from a list figuring more than 90 Padma awardees.

 

The actress in question is married to a politically connected family in which only her husband has been left out in the civilian honour list,now that she has also made it.  Her in-laws have already figured —  Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri for her angry old former superstar father in law and Padma Shri for his better half.

If  the actress in question is being elevated to the altar of highest civilian honours at this point of time, prima facie that could not be a case of merit.

If at all she were to be honoured, it should have been just after she won a world beauty contest. After that, it was her off-screen connections and cupid struck troubled co-stars who have propelled her to limelight, rather than her on screen exploits. 

That she was in the jury of the world’s most prestigious film fete remains as much a mystery as her inclusion in this list of  civilians who are being honoured by a  government about to face the stiff acid test of general elections in  three months time.

Perhaps the political clout that her in-laws wield in a dispensation propped up by  party close to her meant 

that only one of the family could be “conferred” the award. Otherwise, it seems, the lone exclusion from the first family of what is known as Bollywood – and an actors only one at that, would have also made it to the list.

So glamour, connections and cricket made it to the elite list of honour, but boxer Vijender Singh and wrestler Sushil Kumar, who did the nation proud by winning bronze medals in Beijing Olympics did not figure in the list.

What makes this omission a slight to Olympic athletes is that this is the first time an Indian contingent won three medals.

The country’s first individual gold medal winner, Abhinav Bindra, was awarded Padma Bhushan for his rifle shooting exploits, but that is no justification for the snub to the other medal winners. Vijeyender had bagged India’s first medal in boxing and Sushil’s is the second medal in that discipline.

Vijeyender and Sushil need not fret over the elusive civilian honour as they have stamped their class in the world’s biggest sporting event. 

Of course cricket is one sport where we churn out world class performers, but if this is the treatment meted out to our olympic heroes, there is little scope for us to hope against hope that we might produce champions in other sports.