The Boxing Federation of India (BFI) has also announced its contenders for the sports awards. The name of World Boxing Championship silver medalist Amit Panghal and veteran boxer Vikas Krishnan were extended for the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award on Monday. The BFI has nominated the trio of world champions Lovlina Borgohin (69 kg), Simranjit Kaur (64 kg) and Manish Kaushik (63 kg) for the Arjuna Award at the World Championships. Commonwealth Games and Asian Games gold medalist Krishnan (69 kg) has won the Arjuna Award in 2012. The Federation nominated the women's team national coach Mohammad Ali Qamar and assistant coach Chhote Lal Yadav for the Dronacharya Award. Yadav is also associated with six-time world champion MC Mary Kom.
Amit Panghal wrote a letter to the Sports Minister: Asian Games gold medalist Panghal (52 kg) has not won any National Sports Awards so far, he is being nominated for the Arjuna Award for the last three years but 2012 His name was not considered by the selection committee for being found guilty of 'unintentional' doping, after which the Haryana boxer recently urged Sports Minister Kiran Rijiju to change the selection process for the National Sports Awards. While describing the current method as discriminatory. He has been consistently ignored for the Arjuna Award for unintentional dope crime in 2012.
In a letter to the minister, Panghal said that the players should not apply by nominating themselves. The Indian boxer, the only silver medalist at the World Championship, said, "In the current process a player has to send an application. The Sports Committee then selects on the basis of these applications. Discriminatory decisions are made by the members of the Sports Committee in award selection, who have no accountability. The Sports Ministry and Sai have all the records. They know who is entitled and who is not. If not this year, even if next year but change should happen sometime.
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