More than an award: Padma Shri that Asiad hero Kaur Singh is about to relinquish reworked lives

He received the heavyweight boxing gold medal on the 1982 Asian Games in New Delhi to develop into an instantaneous nationwide hero. As the Arjuna Award and Padma Shri adopted, the Indian Army subedar-cum- boxer-cum-farmer would go on to develop into an area legend.
Now, Kaur Singh, 73, has determined to surrender his awards to protest in opposition to the Centre’s contentious new farm legal guidelines. For his village, Khanal Khurd in Punjab’s Sangrur district, the Padma Shri is greater than only a prefix. For this group of about 2,000, Kaur Singh’s title has modified their lives in some ways.
Villagers say it was a push by the area’s revered Padma Shri that bought farms in Khanal Khurd common water provide from a canal, and employment alternatives for lecturers on the native authorities faculty. Whenever they bought caught in bureaucratic hurdles, Kaur Singh would open doorways. It’s been near 4 many years however the village continues to be indebted to the previous boxer with an imposing body and flowing white beard. Be it the numerous shopkeepers who volunteer to stroll you to his house or the hospitable neighbours, Kaur Singh’s title is all the time prefixed with Padma Shri round right here. For Kaur Singh, who nowadays oversees the family-owned farmlands the place wheat and corn is grown, the choice to return the award was like giving up his id.
“When I decided to return the Padma Shri award, I understood I would be giving away an honour greater than my family name. When I was given the award, the then President Giani Zail Singh told me that I have done the state as well as the country proud. All the village elders would call me Padma Shri instead of my name. I was able to get things done for my village because of the award. But no award — whether it’s Padma Shri or Arjuna award — is more valuable than the rights of the farmers,” he says.
Kaur Singh, a former subedar within the tenth Sikh Battalion of the Indian Army, is a diabetic and therefore hasn’t travelled to Delhi to affix the protestors agitating in opposition to the brand new legal guidelines for greater than a month now. He recollects the celebrations which went on for over a month when he received the gold on the Asian Games and in addition these after his back-to-back awards. “When I returned to my unit, there were celebrations for months. The certificate and medallion were displayed at my Army unit till the time I retired in 1994,” he mentioned.
Kaur Singh says the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for farm produce can’t be achieved away with. “Punjab has seen many ups and downs but I never thought of giving away my awards. But this time, it’s about the farmers. I believe the law makes the farmer a slave in his own farmland. I will have no regrets if I am called just Kaur Singh and not Padma Shri or Arjuna awardee,” he mentioned.
Kaur Singh, just like the three different Padma Shri awardees who’ve returned their honours – wrestler Kartar Singh, hockey participant Ajitpal Singh, and former world champion bodybuilder Premchand Degra – is ready to satisfy President Ram Nath Kovind. His awards and citations are at present with fellow Padma recipient and wrestling nice Kartar Singh, who has made a number of journeys to Delhi looking for an appointment at Rashtrapati Bhawan.
Born right into a household of farmers which owned 15 acres of land, Kaur Singh recollects his father Karnail Singh asking him to both be a part of the Army or proceed farming. “He used to tell us that the country depends on these too. The first time I got to know about the Padma awards was in 1982 when players like Kapil Dev, Syed Kirmani and Prakash Padukone were conferred the award. I watched the ceremony at our village sarpanch’s home. It was the only house with a television. The next year, when my name was announced for the Padma awards, I heard it in the news bulletin on the very same TV set,” Kaur Singh recalled.
His choice to surrender the honour was impressed by his long-time idol Muhammad Ali, the all-time boxing legend identified to take principled stands. “He was my role model. I had read about his stand against the Vietnam War, racism and him getting banned from boxing due to his refusal to join the US Army. A man like Ali stood for the rights for his fellow citizens and that’s what we are standing up for too,” says Kaur Singh, who fought an exhibition bout in opposition to Ali in New Delhi in 1980.