Why Bharat Ratna to Sachin, he didn’t play cricket for free: JDU

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, Nov 2013 : Janata Dal United leader Shivanand Tiwari on Monday stoked another controversy by saying that Bharat Ratna awardee Sachin Tendulkar did not play cricket for free.

Questioning the Centre for not conferring the honour on hockey great Major Dhayanchand, he said, "Sachin is a good player but he was paid a lot of money to do that. He didn’t play for free. Someone like Dhyanchand who won several medals for India at a time when we were not a free nation, this award was not given to him."

He also said that the government should stop giving the Bharat Ratna. Tiwari’s comments came just two day after master blaster Sachin Tendulkar became the first sportsperson to get the Bharat Ratna soon after his retirement from all forms of cricket.
ALSO SEE Chouhan demands Bharat Ratna for Dhyanchand, Chandrababu for NTR

Meanwhile, politics continued over the Bharat Ratna as the Bharatiya Janata Party demanded that former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee should also be honoured. Even Congress ally and National Conference chief Farooq Adbullah backed the demand for Vajpayee getting the Bharat Ratna. Farooq said, "Atal Bihari Vajpayee should have got the Bharat Ratna. Even Nehruji praised a leader like Vajpayee. He deserves a Bharat Ratna."
ALSO SEE JD-U supports BJP demand for Bharat Ratna to Vajpayee

Earlier, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said that hockey great Dhyanchand too should be given Bharat Ratna. He said, "I have written earlier to the Centre to confer Bharat Ratna on Major Dhyanchand but got no reply."

He also supported the party’s demand for honouring Vajpayee with the award.
ALSO SEE Why did Atal Bihari Vajpayee not get the Bharat Ratna, asks BJP

The Janata Dal United, which ended its 17-year-old association the BJP after a bitter war of words, has also supported the latter’s view that Vajpayee should be given the Bharat Ratna.

The Telugu Desam Party, too, has jumped into the bandwagon. TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu demanded Bharat Ratna for its founder NT Rama Rao. Chandrababu Naidu said that NTR’s contribution to Indian film and politics cannot be ignored.

In the past, awarding the Bharat Ratna was usually kept above politics. But in the past one year, in the run up to the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, even this seems to have become ammunition for political parties.

 

Courtesy: DHNS