Jeev bags Indian of the Year award for sports

Ace athlete Milkha Singh asks his son to make India proud at the function.

Ace athlete Milkha Singh never desired his son Jeev Milkha Singh to be a sportsperson and instead wanted him to be a doctor or an engineer.

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But the younger Milkha Singh had different ideas and he opted for sports. On receiving the Indian of the Year award for sports by CNN IBN award in partnership with Hindustan Times, Milkha Singh had no regrets but wanted his son to become No. 1 golfer in the world. "My son, you have to make India proud," he declared, in Hindi, at a glittering function on Tuesday.

While accepting the award, Jeev said, he would try to make India feel proud in field of golf and will try to achieve more for the country.

Arvind Kejriwal, who received the Indian of the Year award for social service decided the prize to ordinary citizens of the country who fought to make Right to Information a reality. "RTI would not have been a reality without them. This award is for lakhs of ordinary Indians who fought for their information right," he said.

Rajkumar Hirani, who received the award for entertainment, wondered why he had got the award. "This award proves that a certain percentage of Indians still believe in Gandhi," he said. But his son was asking what he was doing in the award function where there was no Shahrukh Khan. It took him 20 minutes to explain how the awards were different from the other film awards, he said.

Giving the awards Somnath Chatterjee Lok Sabha Speaker termed the awards as reflection of recognisation of what people have done for their country.

The awards were result of sixty days, six judges and millions of votes. The jury headed by noted lawyer Soli Sorabjee and had members like Geet Sethi.