MS Gill, Indian Sports minister doesn’t convinced with Dhoni & Harbhajan’s casualness in receiving the national awards from president.
Dhoni & his teammate Harbhajan Singh were conspicuous by their absence at the Rashtrapati Bhavan ceremony where they were expected to accept the Padma Shri awards from president Pratibha Patil.
"To be selected for such a national honor and then getting the opportunity of receiving it from the president of India is a rare good fortune and must be treated with greatest respect. I certainly don't approve of any casualness in anyone's approach," Gill said.
"We will soon issue a new circular for public information and send a copy to the Home Ministry, which would inform the sportspersons about our policy to ensure that the players don't treat national awards with such casualness," Gill added
Harbhajan cited family reasons for missing the function. While news reports mention as they were busy in a commercial shoot for their IPL teams.
"As the Sports minister, I was involved with national sports awards last year where the president gave away Arjuna, Dronacharya, Dhyan Chand and Tenzing Norgay awards. I was very surprised to see that a number of sportspersons sent substitutes to the ceremony. For me, this is totally unacceptable."
"Nobody in England can think about sending a substitute to the Queen in the annual award ceremony. I remember how Ian Botham received his Knighthood with all due respect for the Queen," Gill said.
"After last year's sport awards, I held a meeting and issued a firm direction to all the federation and sport bodies that from now onwards, all sportspersons must receive his or her in person and would not be allowed to send substitutes to the president", Gill said.
"And if there are any genuine reasons prevent them from turning up, they must send an apology in advance so that at a later date the Sports minister can give them the award," he added.
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