The Arjuna Award is one of the highest honours for Indian sportspersons who have excelled in their respective fields. Today(January 9th,2024), 26 athletes from various disciplines were conferred with the prestigious award by President Droupadi Murmu at the Rashtrapati Bhawan. The list includes some of the stars of the Asian Games 2023, where India won over 100 medals, as well as some of the veterans of Indian sports. Here are some of the highlights of the ceremony:
- Mohammed Shami, the only cricketer in the list, was honoured for his brilliant performance in the ODI World Cup 2023, where he finished as the leading wicket-taker with 24 scalps in seven matches. He also became the fastest bowler to take 50 wickets in the history of the World Cup. Shami, who is recovering from an ankle injury, expressed his gratitude to his family, coach, BCCI, teammates and fans in a heartfelt post on X (formerly Twitter). He said that the award inspires him to continue pursuing his passion and make his country proud.
- Sunil Kumar, the Minister of Kannada and Culture and the Energy Department of Karnataka, was also among the recipients of the Arjuna Award. He is the member of the legislative assembly from Bharatiya Janata Party representing Karkala constituency. He started his political career as a leader of the student wing of the RSS, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, and later joined BJP in 2004. He has been elected as the MLA from Karkala three times and has been instrumental in many developmental works in his constituency. He was also appointed as the Co-Incharge of BJP in Kerala in November 2020. He was sworn in as a cabinet minister under Basavaraj Bommai in August 2021.
- R Vaishali, the sister of 18-year-old chess prodigy Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, was also honoured with the Arjuna Award. She became the third woman from India to achieve the Grandmaster title in 2023, after Koneru Humpy and Dronavalli Harika. She also won the gold medal in the Asian Continental Blitz Championship in 2023 and the silver medal in the Asian Continental Rapid Championship in 2022. She is currently ranked 15th in the world among women in blitz chess and 22nd in rapid chess.
- Sheetal Devi, the world’s first armless woman archer, who won three medals in the Para Games in Hangzhou, was also a part of the list. She was born with a rare condition called Phocomelia, which causes the absence of upper limbs. She learned to use her feet to perform various tasks, including archery. She started practicing archery in 2017 and soon became a national champion. She represented India in the Para Games in 2023 and won two gold medals in the individual and team recurve events and a bronze medal in the mixed team recurve event. She is an inspiration to many people with disabilities and aims to win a medal in the Paralympics.
The other athletes who received the Arjuna Award today are:
- Aditi Gopichand Swami (Archery)
- Ojas Pravin Deotale (Archery)
- Sreeshankar Murali (Athletics)
- Parul Chaudhary (Athletics)
- Mohameed Hussamuddin (Boxing)
- Anush Agarwalla (Equestrian)
- Divyakriti Singh (Equestrian Dressage)
- Diksha Dagar (Golf),
- Krishan Bahadur Pathak (Hockey)
- Pukhrambam Sushila Chanu (Hockey)
- Pawan Kumar (Kabaddi)
- Ritu Negi (Kabaddi)
- Nasreen (Kho-Kho)
- Pinki (Lawn Bowls)
- Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar (Shooting)
- Esha Singh (Shooting)
- Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu (Squash)
- Ayhika Mukherjee (Table Tennis)
- Antim Panghal (Wrestling)
- Naorem Roshibina Devi (Wushu)
- Illuri Ajay Kumar Reddy (Blind Cricket)
- and Prachi Yadav (Para Canoeing).
The Arjuna Award is given annually by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports to recognise the outstanding performance of the sportspersons in the international level. The award comprises a bronze statuette of Arjuna, a certificate, a ceremonial dress and a cash prize of Rs 15 lakh. The award was instituted in 1961 and is named after Arjuna, one of the characters of the Sanskrit epic Mahabharata, who is considered as a symbol of hard work, dedication and concentration.
The Arjuna Award is a great honour for the Indian sportspersons who have made the country proud with their achievements. It is also a motivation for them to continue their excellence and inspire the future generations of athletes. We congratulate all the winners of the Arjuna Award 2023 and wish them all the best for their future endeavours.
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