IBNLive-7: New Delhi: Monday,
February 03, 2014.
The process
of conferring the country's highest civilian honour Bharat Ratna on batting
maestro Sachin Tendulkar was initiated on the first day of his farewell 200th
cricket Test on November 14 last and the announcement made two days later,
according to an RTI reply.
A message was
sent to Sports Ministry by the Prime Minister's Office(PMO) signed by Director
Rajeev Topno for sending a bio-data of Tendulkar (today itself) in a faxed format
at 1.35 pm on November 14, 2013, according to a document provided by the PMO to
sports enthusiast Hemant Dube in response to a Right to Information(RTI) query.
Acting on it,
the Sports Ministry sent the desired bio-data in the requested format to the
PMO at 5.22 pm. The bio-data was sent by SPS Tomar, Under Secretary, Ministry
of Youth Affairs and Sports, with the approval of the Secretary, Sport Tendulkar
was playing his historic 200th Test match that began on November 14 at his home
ground in Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. Rahul Gandhi watched the match the next
day.
On November
15, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after completing the necessary formalities
had sent the proposal to confer Bharat Ratna to Tendulkar to President Pranab
Mukherjee for his approval, the RTI document said.
A day later,
the decision to confer Bharat Ratna on the master blaster was announced, Dube
said quoting the document. The Prime Minister had informed Tendulkar about the
decision on November 17, through a letter, he said. Dube, who is a cancer
patient, sought the information through RTI on November 27 last year.
He was
provided the relevant documents running into 14 pages under the RTI Act by the
PMO through a letter, dated January 17 and signed by Deputy Secretary and
Central Public Information Officer Sayyed Irkam Rizwi.
Citing the
provisions of the RTI Act, the concerned official in the PMO said in his reply,
"The communication between the Prime Minister and the President is a
privileged communication under the provision of Article 74(2)of the Constitution
of India and is not to be disclosed. "However, a copy of the relevant file
noting and correspondence pertaining to the award of Bharat Ratna to Tendulkar
excluding privileged communication running into 14 pages can be provided."
Dubey has
been rooting for the Bharat Ratna to be conferred on hockey wizard Dhyan Chand
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