Award withheld or Denied??

 It is official that Narender Singh's name is not on the final list of awardees attending the virtual award ceremony on the 29th of August. The Haryana based mountaineer with a questionable mountaineering career accused of faking his Mt Everest Summit was one of the recipients of the prestigious Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award.

An official statement released by the Sports Ministry this evening states that there will be 14 sportspersons who will be absent from the virtual presentation of the annual National Sports Awards by the President of India Ram Nath Kovind this morning. The Ministry goes on to say that these sportspersons are unable to make it to the award due to health reasons and due to other sporting commitments, while one recipient of the Dronacharya Award has passed away.

The final list of names released by the Ministry does not have the name of Narender Singh. On Thursday, August 27, 2020, I had reported for The Mid-Day newspaper that Narender Singh had faked his Everest Summit in 2016 and raised questions on the selection criteria of these awards.
(https://www.mid-day.com/…/man-who-faked-summiting…/22956228…).

As a consequence of the report and the outrage ion social media by the mountaineering community, a probe was initiated by the Ministry and the concerned officers were asked to take charge to investigate the matter on an emergency basis on Friday August 28, 2020
(https://www.mid-day.com/…/probe-ordered-in-fake-e…/22957289…) .

However, there are no clear reasons cited as to why Singh’s name is not on the final awards list. Speculations are rife that he is not getting the award due to pending investigations.

The mountaineering community as a whole hope that the inquiry is a comprehensive one and not just limited to his fake Everest claims. The investigation needs to look into his credentials as a mountaineer and all his other claims of successful summits and world records. 

The big question is what qualifies him for this national award? Does he truly meet the outstanding ethical and technical standards required by an adventurer for receiving a National award for excellence in his field? If these questions are clearly answered it would truly be a beginning because that is the change we hope to bring.

It is yet on confirmed whether his award is withheld or denied.