Jaipur: Rajasthan’s highest sports honours—Maharana Pratap Award and Guru Vashisht Award—have been pending for over 7 years, leaving players and trainers disappointed.
Founded in 1982–1983, the awards are meant to inspire and motivate athletes and their trainers; however, successive governments have failed to announce recipients despite receiving hundreds of applications.
Speaking to the media here, Rajasthan’s sports minister Colonel Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore accused the previous Congress government of ignoring the awards and attributed the delay to a huge backlog created by the past administration. He also assured that he would revive the award soon. “I have instructed sports officials to clear the backlog created by the previous government and give awards to players to boost their morale. So, they will get encouragement soon,” he said.
Failure Of Former Sportspersons In Power
Rajasthan saw several changes of leadership in the sports department during the last five years, but these awards continued to remain stalled. During the Congress government, a former cricketer and polo player, Ashok Chandna, was the sports minister, but, there was no headway towards announcing these awards during his tenure.
International athlete and Arjuna Award winner Krishna Poonia, who was the president of the Sports Council, also did not make any announcements regarding the awards. In the current Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, the sports ministry was given to Colonel Rathore, an Olympic medallist, but even after a year had passed, no decision was taken about these awards.
Awards And Pending Applications
In 1982-83, the sports council planned to give five Guru Vashisht Awards and five Maharana Pratap Awards annually, with a monetary reward of Rs 5 lakh each. However, despite the sports council's inviting and receiving applications from players, no awards were given. For instance, in 2018-19, 27 trainers applied for the Guru Vashisht Award, while 66 players applied for the Maharana Pratap Award.
Similarly, in 2019-20, a total of 39 applications were made for the Guru Vashisht Award and 113 for the Pratap Award, whereas in 2020-21, about 50 applications were made for the Guru Vashisht Award. The current BJP government, led by Rathore, too promised to revive the awards, but without giving any timeline for the same.
Delay Brings Disappointment
The delay in announcing new winners has raised concerns about the government's commitment to supporting sports development in Rajasthan and disappointed players and trainers.
Former captain of the Rajasthan Basketball Team, Danveer Singh Bhati, highlighted the importance of these awards in motivating players. “This award is given to encourage and honour players, and it should be given as soon as possible so that they can perform better,” he said.
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