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In an attempt to connect with the local populace, BJP vice president and nominee for the Darjeeling parliamentary seat S S Ahluwalia has said mountaineer Tenzing Norgay Sherpa deserves Bharat Ratna and the BJP will look into the matter if voted to power.
Accusing both the state and the Centre of failing to recognise Tenzing's contribution, Ahluwalia said, "Successive governments had not even taken a Cabinet decision to recommend Tenzing Norgay's name for a Bharat Ratna to the President."
Ahluwalia visited the house of late Sherpa, who was the first to scale the Mount Everest alongwith Edmund Hillary in 1953, at D B Giri road here and met his son Jamling Tenzing Norgay Sherpa yesterday.
Jamling took the BJP candidate around the family's private museum and they spent around half-an-hour discussing Tenzing's achievement.
Later, Ahluwalia told reporters, "Tomorrow, I am filing my nomination but before doing so, I wanted to come and pay homage to the tallest figure of Darjeeling. Today is also a historic day as Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev were sent to the gallows on this day in 1931."
With Jamling by his side, the BJP candidate said, "Tenzing was given Padma Bhushan only in 1959, six years after such a major international event in which an Indian was involved after Independence."
According to him, even the RBI should have issued coins of Tenzing Norgay.
The BJP candidate also said that the award should also be given to other sportsmen like Dhyan Chand and Milkha Singh.
"Have we forgotten our heroes of the 50s and 60s?" Ahluwalia asked.
