2025: Why India will still not be a sporting nation

The story so far. At the 2024 Paris Olympics, India with one silver and five bronze ranked 71st in the medal tally. Shooter Manu Bhaker won two of these medals, the only athlete in Independent India to do so in a single edition of the Olympics.

After the felicitations and a flurry of congratulatory messages on X, one would think all the award nominations for the forthcoming future were hers for the taking. In India however, success even on a global stage plays second fiddle to bureaucratic whim and political apathy.

Boundaries around sport are fluid and encroached upon effortlessly by politicians who run federations as personal fiefdoms, an Indian on the podium is more often than not, despite the system. Sometimes, even a win or two isn’t enough.

Bhaker’s name is missing from a shortlist of 30 athletes for the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award, India’s highest sporting award. Baffling isn’t it; India aspires to host the 2036 Olympics and has sporadic achievements to show for it and yet what it can showcase, it disdainfully disregards.

Left out?

The sports ministry says the shooter did not file a nomination an allegation the athlete and her family dispute.  ‘There has been a lapse, maybe on my part,’ says the shooter but read between the lines, it is not an admission. There is however a bigger question here, why is an Olympic winner at the mercy of bureaucracy and officialdom when her achievements speak for themselves?

Why are athletes asked to propose their own names when their performance is in the public domain? The sports ministry must consult relevant sports federations for recommendations and list on merit while keeping a channel open for the grievances of those who feel deservedly left out.

Previously known as the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award in honour of the former Prime Minister, the prize is finalised by a government-constituted committee.

Apologists of the episode — the other thin line is between celebrating a win and decreeing the same athlete as anti-national for raising any stink — blame the process on the Congress party that created the award. The BJP has changed street and city names as far back as the colonial era, amending a system that dates back only to 1992 should be a cakewalk. All it needs is intent.

A sporting honour

It is not just this decoration. The Arjuna Awards, given for outstanding performance, are the second-highest sporting honour. They, too, have the same procedure: Indian athletes scramble to file nominations instead of spending valuable time training. There is a reason why India is not a sporting nation and won’t be one any time soon.

Even champions are made to beg and are only as qualified as their importance in a political tamasha. Shunted from one function to another Olympic medallists have skipped valuable tournaments due to a lack of training in the past.

Apart from cricket, success in other sports is by and large an aberration.  In these instances, individual sacrifices or personal investments have been key. Manu Bhaker’s father sums it up. ‘It is also my fault that I encouraged Manu into Olympic sports. To the entire country's parents, I would like to say don't get your kids into sports but if you need money then get them into cricket and if you need power then make them aspirants of Indian civil services.’ He also alleges that some prize money owed to the shooter has been pending for six years.

Bhaker’s story is a comeback for the ages. In 2021, she was the face of the Indian shooting team’s disastrous show in Tokyo. And India fans are brutal —as fair weather as you can get. They have not even spared cricketer — usually hallowed territory — Virat Kohli for his alleged relocation to London calling him ‘selfish’ for abandoning his home country.

An outspoken athlete

After the backlash over Bhaker’s missing nomination, chances are her name will be included in the final list and she may even be the recipient by invoking special powers, a loophole for such eventualities. If it was an oversight, the panel itself needs to resign, but Manu Bhaker has also been outspoken and met opposition leader Rahul Gandhi soon after her return from Paris.

In 2021, all the Tokyo Olympic medallists including Paralympic champions were bestowed with the honour, a lovely gesture that was both well-deserved and encouraging for aspiring sportspersons. This time, apart from hockey captain Harmanpreet Singh — and rightly so — there are no other names. Harvinder Singh, the first Indian to win gold in Paralympic archery also reportedly finds his name missing and calls it discrimination. A two-time Paralympic medalist has threatened to move court in frustration.

In a country starved of non-cricket champions, those playing Olympic sports are tested as much inside the stadium as they are outside the playing arena. And, in those stadiums, the Indian flag flying high is rare. Yet, when it does the occasion becomes one of political optics.

It is time for our political class to tell us what they bring to the table of Indian sport. Beyond the reflected glory, free junkets and power play, respect is inconspicuous.

India’s bid to host the Olympics sounds good on paper but without doing right by our icons, it is a pack of cards. Who wins if the champions lose?