Mary Kom’s (left) was recommended for Padma Vibhushan while PV Sindhu has been recommended for the Padma Bhushan.
For the first time a women athlete’s name was recommended for the prestigious Padma Vibhushan award when the name of six-time world champion boxer Mary Kom was put forwarded by the sports ministry for the country’s second highest civilian honour after the Bharat Ratna.According to Times of India, Mary was among the nine recommendations made by the ministry for the Padma awards. Again, for the first time, all the nine names that have been recommended are of female athletes.
Star shuttler PV Sindhu has been recommended for the Padma Bhushan, the country’s third highest civilian award. She recently became the first Indian to win the world championship in August.
Earlier, Mary Kom was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2013 and Padma Shri in 2006.
If she goes on to receive the Padma Vibhushan, she would be the fourth sportsperson to achieve the feat after chess wizard Viswanathan Anand in 2007, cricketer Sachin Tendulkar in 2008 and mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary, who was awarded posthumously in 2008.
Meanwhile, this is not the first time that Sindhu’s name has been recommended by the sports ministry. In 2017, Sindhu was overlooked despite the recommendation. She was awarded the Padma Shri in 2015.The other seven women in this year’s list have all been recommended for the Padma Shri. They are wrestler Vinesh Phogat, table tennis star Manika Batra, T20I skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, hockey captain Rani Rampal, former shooter Suma Shirur and mountaineer twin sisters, Tashi and Nungshi Malik, according to the TOI report.
The recommendations have been sent to the Padma awards committee in the home ministry and the names of the awardees will be announced on the eve of the Republic Day next year.
WhatsApp us