Should Sachin Tendulkar be conferred a Rajya Sabha nomination or Bharat Ratna?

Not long ago, Sachin Tendulkar a name which binds 1.2 billion people together in our country was conferred with a nomination in upper house of the Parliament and the question which has been raised is - whether inducting the cricketing great into Rajya Sabha is a prudent decision or not? While people may argue that Tendulkar deserves everything that he is bestowed upon but his nomination into Parliament has raised a few eyebrows. The common consensus among the people is that Politics or Parliament is not the place for a sports’ bigwig where the issues regarding the development of country are placed above the decisions relating to caught behind or run outs. Now, as a matter of fact the million dollar question is - should the master be awarded Bharat Ratna – The highest award for any civilian in the country or a seat in the Parliament?

Sachin Tendulkar, a champion batsman with numbers that are hard or possibly impossible to emulate has been a great ambassador of Indian cricket for the last two decades. The credentials, the feats of this man particularly the ton of tons was just an imagination before he pulled it off. The records and feats will be cherished by the cricketing fraternity for the unforeseeable future.  But outside the cricket stadium Tendulkar has been a true role model conducting himself with dignity and humility. He has been an inspiration to hundreds of thousands in our country. These credentials and the respect that he derives are already enough for Bharat Ratna but a seat in the political stadium has been a bone of contention. A parliament is a place where decisions, deliberations and debates regarding policies of national interests and various legislative bills are held for which one has to be well acquainted with all socio-economic aspects, the political situation in the country because of which Tendulkar just doesn’t fit into the scheme of things.  The duties that are supposed to be discharged by Tendulkar may require sound decision and policy making ability which would be a tricky task for the little master than smashing a six off Brett Lee.

Looking deeper into this nomination it won’t be a bad idea to induct the sportsmen into policy making and administrative roles that would help to run sports ministry or any other sports managing body more efficiently. This would help for the welfare and overall holistic development of the sporting community. The young and aspiring sportsmen would be benefitted from this sort of a policy. The huge talent pool of players not just from cricket but from other sports would not be wasted which is the case right now. May be Tendulkar can drive a change, but then again Sachin Tendulkar has not been popular as a leader.

Tendulkar, without a shadow of a doubt deserves Bharat Ratna for he has achieved everything that a civilian could achieve in the field of cricket but does he merits a seat as an MP needs to be recapitulated since MPs from diverse backgrounds such as sports and cinema have seldom done anything substantial to the decision making and development. The move could be a political gimmick of the government to just politicize the game which already has many politicians as the chairmen of various state run cricket associations.

At the end of the day, its Tendulkar’s call whether to duck this political bouncer and continue being the face of World Cricket or to start a new innings on an all together different pitch.