Congress supports renaming Khel Ratna Award, says rechristen stadia too

They welcomed the move but urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to change the names of sports stadiums named after him, Arun Jaitley and other BJP leaders, and name them too after India’s sports legends such as PT Usha, Milkha Singh and Sachin Tendulkar.

All India Congress Committee spokesman Randeep Surjewala subtly stressed that a prestigious national sports award named after Dhyan Chand has been in existence since 2002 (the UPA era) while “welcoming” the PM’s decision to name another award too in the name of the celebrated hockey player.

He said Rajiv Gandhi was, in any case, known for his contributions and sacrifices than any awards and accused PM Modi of indulging in “myopic politics” besides trying to divert attention from the fact that the Centre had “reduced the fund allocation for sports by Rs 230 crore despite the Olympics year”. Congress MP Tarun Gogoi tweeted, “ hope the government will also award the Bharat Ratna to Major Dhyanchand.”