New Delhi: The Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, the country’s highest sporting honor, has been renamed. The award will henceforth be known as the Major Dhyanchand Khel Ratna Award. Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted that the decision was based on demand from different parts of the country.
The Prime Minister said that he had received requests from various quarters to name Dhyan Chand, the three-time Olympic hockey gold medalist for India, in the highest honor in his honor and that he was renaming the Khel Ratna award in the interest of the people.
The Khel Ratna Award was given in 1991 as the highest award for excellence in sports. The award was named in honor of the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, who was killed in a bomb blast that year.
