Amit Panghal Requests Kiren Rijiju To Revamp Selection Criteria For National Sports Awards

Repeatedly denied the Arjuna award for an "inadvertent" dope offence back in 2012, Asian Games gold-winning boxer Amit Panghal on Friday requested Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju to revamp the selection criteria for the national sports awards, calling the current process "discriminatory".

In a letter to the Minister, Panghal, who became India's first male boxer to win a world championship silver last year, said that athletes should not have to plead their case for an award by nominating themselves.

"The current process is that a sportsperson has to send application and then sports committee selects on the basis of these applications. Award selection is also based on discriminative decision of sports committee members who hold no accountability," he said in the letter.