On August 6 PM Modi announced that the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award would be known as the ‘Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award’ from now onwards after the recent medal victories in the Tokyo Olympics. PM Modi announced this via tweet, he tweeted, “I have been getting many requests from citizens across India to name the Khel Ratna Award after Major Dhyan Chand. I thank them for their views. Respecting their sentiment, the Khel Ratna Award will hereby be called the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award!”
Following this, several media outlets and BJP ministers including the former and sitting ministers shared an image thanking PM Modi. The text on the image with a photo of the medal said, “The Khel Ratna Award has been renamed the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award. Thank you, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, for supporting the idea of millions of Indians.”
Former Education minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai, National spokesperson of BJP Sambit Patra, BJP Madhya Pradesh, Zee News, Dainik Jagaran, et cetera shared the post among various others.
In one of the tweets, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra thanked PM Modi and shared the image and netizens were quick to spot the difference about the viral image and pointed out that the medal in the post was the Param Vir Chakra and not the Khel Ratna Award. Several opposition party leaders and journalists too spotted the difference and posts started pouring in and flooding the social media that the medal displayed in the viral image was not the ‘Khel Ratna Award’.
On visiting the website of the Indian Air Force and Ministry of Defence, a medal was found on the page which resembled the viral image of the claimed ‘Khel Ratna Award’ was the Param Vir Chakra. The Paramvir Chakra is the highest military award in India, given for distinguished wartime acts.
Param Vir Chakra translates as the “Wheel of the Ultimate Brave”, and the award is granted for “most conspicuous bravery in the presence of the enemy”.
Moreover, upon searching, the original image of the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award on the official website of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports showed up. Multiple images of this award are also available on the international stock image site, Getty Images.
Even these images made it clear that the medal in the image in question is not of Khel Ratna. Looking for the images of Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award on Google an image from 2012 popped up with wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt holding it.
Hence, it is clear that the image in question is of Param Vir Chakra and not Khel Ratna. Since Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna was renamed recently, we need to wait and see what the new medal will look like. The existing photos of the Khel Ratna Award had the embedded text, “Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna”, with an Ashok Stambh. Thus, the medal on the viral photo is not Khel Ratna but Param Vir Chakra.
