^^ Nehru, Tendulkar and Dhyan Chand ^^

 In my last post, I talked about Tendulkar going to retire from Test matches, and effectively from all forms of cricket. I remember that day, I got up early, after doing late shift the day before, and went to the gym. Not to work out, but to watch Sachin Tendulkar bat for one last time. I was feeling very sad, and there was a pain in my heart, as I was watching him bat, I knew this would be the last time I am doing it live. For someone born in the 80s, who grew up watching him, it has become a part of our life, and now we don't have it.

 India did manage to defeat West Indies by an innings again in the second test match, wrapping up a 2-nil white wash. Sachin made 74 in his last innings, Rohit Sharma made another hundred, now he has 2 in his first 2. Sachin also gave one of the most emotional speeches on his farewell test match, only reading through it made me emotional. The government declared a Bharat Ratna for him. He certainly does deserve it, however there is a twist, read on...

 So what I did is, lets check the list of people who have got Bharat Ratna till now. So, as expected there is a wiki page for it.Here it is.  So till now 43 people have received Bharat Ratna.  All of them are great men and women in their own right. But then I see the name of Nehru, Indhira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi and I think, well they are politicians. This award is for performance of highest order, and it is given by the government. So should politicians be given this? I think it is not fair, any government would always glorify and publicize its ministers, especially if the government is a corrupt one like congress. Politicians should NOT be given this award, its a mockery and insult of it.

 So lets see what has Nehru done, what has he done of highest order that he got this award? To start with, after Independence Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was most popular to become the Prime Minister. He was the one who united India, and was one of the founding fathers of our great country. But Gadhiji favored Nehru, as Nehru had international education and Gandhiji thought it would help India in international affairs. Sardar Patel backed off, and Nehru became first prime minister of India. However the international barrister committed lot of serious blunders, because of which we are still suffering. 

 First mistake is freeing Sheikh Abdullah from Kashmir Jail.  Second mistake is declining the US offer of a permanent seat at the UNSC in 1953. Third is calling UN ceasefire when Indian troops were going to win back the whole of Kashmir including the present PoK. Fourth is Indo-Chino war of 1962, his foreign policy failed. He could have taken help from America, but he didn't. Fifth mistake is not allowing rehabilitation of millions of Hindus from Kashmir valley, and East and West Pakistan.  Due to this, millions of Hindus were killed, raped or converted to Islam. And yes...after all that Nehru got the Bharat Ratna, and that too before Sardar Patel!

 With the recent Bharat Ratna given to Tendulkar, there are debates about why one was not given to Dhyan Chand.? Well frankly, I had no idea who he was. He was one of the greatest hockey players of all time. It was during his time, that India won three gold medals at the Olympics. Yes those were the times when India dominated the sport of hockey. He played during a time, when there was not much media coverage, no social media whatsoever. He was a great goal scoring machine. He was called as a magician with the hockey stick. Winning a gold medal in Olympics is still considered as a miracle for India, and if someone does that, he is awarded millions. Dhyan Chand won three of those for our country, but still his last days were not very happy. He was short of money and was badly ignored by the nation. He developed liver cancer and was sent to AIIMS New Delhi in general ward. He died on 3rd December 1979.

 The more you read about Dhyan Chand, the more you get fascinated, and wish you had a chance to see him in action. Scoring 20 or more goals for a team, and scoring 10 goals for an individual in just a single game, simply shows the dominance of a team, and the magical skills of an individual. Yes those were the golden era of the Indian hockey team, the era of Dhyan Chand. He certainly deserves a Bharat Ratna too...