Sherpas in Darjeeling demanded Tenzing Norgay should be conferred the Bharat Ratna award

Darjeeling, Dec. 19: The Sherpas in Darjeeling have demanded that Tenzing Norgay should be conferred the Bharat Ratna award.

The demand comes amid charges that the contribution of Tenzing, the first mountaineer to scale Mount Everest with Edmund Hillary in 1953, has been forgotten by the Indian government.

The Sherpas have raised the demand, citing the recent decision to confer Bharat Ratna to sports personalities.

“The names of hockey wizard Dhyan Chand and cricketer Sachin Tendulkar are doing the rounds for the Bharat Ratna. We believe Tenzing is as deserving a personality as any other sportsman of the country,” said P.T. Sherpa, the general secretary of the United Sherpa Association.

According to a notification issued by the Prime Minister’s Office recently, the Bharat Ratna — the highest civilian honour — will be awarded to recognise excellence “in any field of human endeavour”. Earlier, the Bharat Ratna was restricted to exceptional achievements such as “art, literature, science and public service”. The change in terms of reference has brought sports persons within the ambit of the award.

“Something that was considered impossible was made possible by Tenzing and Hillary,” said P.T. Sherpa.

Tenzing has been conferred with some of the highest civilian awards by about two dozen countries.

“He received the George Medal in 1953, the highest award for a non-British, along with Iran Shah Medal, the Nepal Tara and Nepal Pratap Vardak award from Nepal. He had also received the USSR Sports Special Medal, Special Olympic Medal, French Sports Special Medal, Italian Sports Special Medal, Coronation Medal of Queen Elizabeth II and many others,” said Sherpa.

But in India, the highest decoration that Tenzing has received is the Padma Bhushan in 1959.

“But there are other higher awards conferred by the Indian government,” said Jamling Tenzing Norgay Sherpa, son of the mountaineer “who put India on the top of the world”.

But now the feeling is that the government is forgetting Tenzing. “Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and to some extent even Rajiv Gandhi was close to Tenzing but things changed after them,” said Jamling. 

Vivek Chettri

The Telegraph