Yasin Merchant, who has written to Rahul Gandhi after being ignored for the Padma awards

New Delhi, Jan. 30: If life were a snooker table, Saif Ali Khan might have by now been sent cannoning across the green-top board.

Left out of the Republic Day-eve roll of honours, “disillusioned” champion cueist Yasin Merchant has lashed out at what he called was a “sham” as he ridiculed some of the choices, though he didn’t take names.

But in an emotional letter to Rahul Gandhi, the two-time Asian champion included enough clues that mirror the life of some of those who figure on this year’s Padma list.

“Most importantly, the list included ‘Youth Icons’ who have been conferred with Padma Bhushans and Padma Shris for setting such examples like being allegedly involved in killing endangered species, having live-in relationships, abandoning wives and kids and moving on to ‘greener pastures’, getting involved in immature, juvenile digs at fellow performers,” Merchant, 43, wrote in his letter to the Congress leader. “Are these the role models for our children?”

Saif, a Padma winner this year, had been involved in a black buck killing case. The actor, however, has been acquitted in the case.

Another Padma winner, Aamir Khan, who divorced his wife and remarried, has taken pot shots at some actors considered his rivals.

Saif Ali Khan, acquitted in a black buck killing case and one of the Padma Shri awardees this year, with actress Kareena Kapoor

Merchant said his international achievements had been ignored. “All synonyms defining the word disappointment racked my body and as expected frustration too did an all-body tour, pinching and biting every pore of my disillusioned body, as I browsed through the list of fortunate recipients who have been ‘honoured’ by India,” the Busan Asian Games gold medallist wrote.

Merchant said the list included the “elite who have just a few cases of alleged fraud tagged along their name”.

The allusion was probably to US-based hotelier Sant Singh Chatwal, who once faced several cases of financial irregularities. The government has, however, clarified that Chatwal had been discharged in all the cases.

“I hope this letter gets read and I’ll get the award in (the) near future,” Merchant said over phone from Mumbai.

“Deserving candidates like me who have given so many years to the country are being ignored…. They (government) didn’t consider my name worthy. It’s shameful and demoralising.”

Merchant said the first time his name came up for the Padma Shri was in January 2001. “I didn’t get it but was told it would be conferred on me the next time. Next year, I won the gold medal in the Busan Asian Games but my name was never considered after that.”

The Arjuna award winner said he had earlier written to Indian Olympic Association chief Suresh Kalmadi. “I have no clue what is going on. Let the officials answer me this time. One thing which I know for sure is that I do not have very strong political connections, nor do I have the desire to buy these awards.”

Merchant said the list did not include individuals, “who from the age of 13 to date (43), have been... converting sweat into blood, sacrificing friends and society for the sake of earning glory for their club, their city, their state and eventually their country”.

The champion cueist said he neither had the “patience” nor the “inclination to go around begging for recommendation letters from MPs and MLAs…”

“You call this a formal system to apply for the awards? Nothing but a sham! A pathetic excuse to feed the already inflated egos of the bureaucrats and an opportunity to shame the achievers of our country into submission.”

Merchant also took a dig at the “nation’s most-loved sport” — cricket. “The list was high profile, as it should be, comprising sports people who belong to the nation’s most-loved sport, whose earlier recipients did not even consider the Padma award ceremony worthy of their presence, but they still get favoured,” he said.

But Merchant clarified that “not everybody” was “undeserving” and there were “people like Saina Nehwal in the list who fully deserve the award”.

Merchant said in “normal circumstances”, he would have found it beneath his “dignity” to write the letter. “But here in my defence all I can say is that it was an emotional outburst. I am an emotional person who likes to speak his mind.”

Asked why he wrote to Rahul, who was not involved in deciding the awards, Merchant said he considered the Congress general secretary the future leader of the country. “I wanted him to know what was going on in the name of distributing the Padma awards,” he said.

Copies of the letter have been sent to President Pratibha Patel, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, but Merchant hasn’t received any reply yet. “Perhaps it is too early,” he said.