Bharat Ratna for Sachin Tendulkar ... little too early!

"My life between 22 yards in the 24 years ... " a very emotional speech indeed, that filled most his fan's eyes with tears. Another master stroke by the little master!

24 years - a very well deserved innings. He perfected each and every shot in the book, played the likes of Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Saqlain Mushtaq, Muttiah Muralitharan, Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Curty Ambrose, Allan Donald and many more. These players along with great batsmen like Ricky Ponting, Rahul Dravid, Jacques Kallis and Adam Gilchrist defined an era of cricket, which is history as Sachin Tendulkar retired yesterday. Truly a genius!

With his retirement came the news of Bharat Ratna awarded to Sachin Tendulkar and CNR Rao, a chemist with 60 Honorary Doctorates from various Universities in the world and who is Head of Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India. Sachin Tendulkar being the youngest of the 43 Bharat Ratna awardees to date, did it again.Yeah, he eclipsed the chemist's achievements and his award to such an extent that his name was nowhere mentioned on the first page of any of the major newspapers in Mumbai.

What is astonishing is the timing of this award for Sachin - though he kind of deserved it - that should have come way later in Sachin Tendulkar's life as it has for most of the other recipients of the award.

Though the award is specifically for his work in cricket, it is definitely more than that. It is what the person is and his work taken together. He will have to live with that tag and his behavior in public should now reflect those magnanimous qualities consistently throughout the rest of his life. And that is a very big responsibility that he will have to bear! A big responsibility to keep country before self - which hasn't truly happened for him so far on numerous occasions - be it the request to waive import duty on his gifted Ferrari, his request for extra FSI for his bungalow in Bandra and his high-voltage behind-the-scene drama related to the declaration in Multan test by Rahul Dravid. These glitches and others, if any, can still be put behind - but to carry Bharat Ratna image from so early on in his life should be his priority.

Also, so to say, this timing was not good taking into consideration many elderly persons on the list who have done very well in their respective careers and have also served the nation well. I surely cannot name them all and in right order, but Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee - who took bold decisions in his stint and made India nuclear capable and Dhyan Chand - greatest of all the hockey players - could have been given the award before Sachin Tendulkar. They deserved it more than Sachin Tendulkar did.

This said - I do respect him for his achievements and do congratulate him for winning the award!

P.S.: List of recipients of Bharat Ratna

Forgotten Ratna - P.V. Narsimha Rao

Nehru had a dream, a socialist dream! Inspired by Soviet Union, Nehru showed the socialist path to India. He invested then limited funds in government founded enterprises - few among them are known to be the Nav-Ratnas (the 9 diamonds) of Indian industrial revolution. With that he also went on to put heavy restrictions on private investments in many of the sectors during this period, which is infamously known as the License Raj. During License Raj, private players could manufacture goods only with official license and quantity of goods manufactured was also decided by the government. Industrialist like Birla had to opt for other countries like Indonesia / Europe to setup their business instead of just knocking onto politicians  and bureaucrats door for as long as ten years to setup an industry.
By and large, the decade after independence was very crucial, as that decided the path India would take and as always changing an established system is always difficult - if not impossible. If License Raj was not enough, Nehru also promoted worker unions, who had their own set of rules. India being democratic country unions got employee friendly and went against the employers - going on strike being their ultimate weapon to turn on any argument in their favor. This made already inefficient and corrupt government establishments more inefficient and Nehru's dream more distant satellite.

In July 1991, it was P.V. Narsimha Rao's government who ended this License Raj and allowed 51% foreign direct investment in India. It was Narsimha Rao who with help of his team - including Manmohan Singh and P. Chidambaram - liberated India from the clutches of License Raj. There were some compulsions to do this as well (India was economically in very bad shape then and India had to pledge huge amount of gold in foreign market), but Narsimha Rao dared and did majors economic reforms in just 2 days (which actually continued until 2 years). Though this credit goes to Rajiv Gandhi, with Rao himself declaring that it was Rajiv Gandhi's undone work that he is completing, it was part of 1991 Congress election manifesto that was written under Narsimha Rao's leadership.
So to speak, greater portion of this credit should go to P.V. Narsimha Rao, whose bold decision gave India the much needed economical reforms. This more so because former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was much against this liberalization for government might lose control. But today after 21 years of end of License Raj, P.V. Narsimha Rao's work in still undone and economic reforms are still a way to go. This clearly puts Narsimha Rao in spot light in the history of Indian economy and makes him a true Bharat Ratna, though this award hasn't come his way as yet. His contribution is forgotten and there are hardly any government schemes by his name - more so the newly inaugurated airport in Hyderadad, Rao's home state, was named after Rajiv Gandhi.

References:
India Unbound by Gurcharan Das