Bharat Ratna to Sachin

Though I am a great admirer of Sachin Tendulkar both as a sportsman and an individual, I am not very comfortable about Bharat Ratna being conferred upon him. This highest civilian award should go to people who have immensely contributed to the upliftment of the country or its citizens. Then there are others like Dhyan Chand, Vishwanath Anand etc who also deserve this award. Hockey being our national game, Dhyan Chand perhaps deserved it more. Amitabh Bachan would have also definitely got it if he had cordial relations with the Nehru-Gandhi family. It is disturbing to see that popular sportsperson and actors getting nominated to the Rajya Sabha. If it is someone like Shabana Azmi then it is ok as she is actively involved in social work. I am not sure if Rekha or Sachin are right choices for membership of Rajya Sabha. However, this decision is mostly made by the politicians for whom popular sentiment is more important than anything else. They couldn't have chosen a better moment than this as everyone is very sentimental after hearing Sachin's speech today which was indeed very touching. Prof. CNR should also perhaps thank Sachin. He is perhaps a more deserving candidate but one wonders if our leaders would have done it without the need for awarding Sachin. In any case, Sachin is definitely more deserving than some of them who have been awarded Bharat Ratna in the past purely on political ground. One wonders why did Gopinath Bordoloi win this award only in 1999 even though he passed away in 1950? Same is the case with Dr. Ambedkar. If Indira Gandhi who had imposed emergency can win this award (she won it before emergency) and if Rajiv Gandhi and M. G. Ramachandran can be given this award then why not Sachin? At least he is an excellent human being and he has set insurmountable standards in his chosen field.