Virat Kohli Deserves Bharat Ratna: Star Cricketer’s Bold Claim Ignites National Debate

The debate over Virat Kohli's deservingness of India's highest civilian honor, the Bharat Ratna, has sparked a heated conversation across the country. Following Harbhajan Singh's bold statement that Kohli is more deserving than many past recipients, social media erupted with comparisons to Sachin Tendulkar, the cricket legend who has long been synonymous with the award.

With Kohli's record-breaking 2023, including becoming the first batter to score 28,000 international runs, fans have rallied behind him, gathering over 600,000 signatures on Change.org to demand recognition. But the question remains: does cricket merit the nation's highest accolade?

The Kohli case: The numbers make the argument

Virat Kohli's cricket stats are like fiction:

80+ international centuries (12 centuries within just the 2024-25 season).
Maximum runs in the T20 World Cup 2025 (India's victorious campaign).
Best-paid athlete in the world (US$42 million in 2025), according to Forbes.

Apart from mere figures, Kohli created a new culture of fitness and performance within the cricketing fraternity. Ravi Shastri, who formerly coached India remarked, Kohli made athletes into real professionals. Fans have said Kohli's impact in unifying Indians was comparable to Sachin Tendulkar's Bharat Ratna (2014). Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh tweeted, Virat united India like few can.

The Counter-View: Beyond the World of Cricket

Others have pointed to the tradition of a Bharat Ratna's lifetime nation-building:

3% of past rewards have been given to individual sportspeople (PRs India).
Historian Ramachandra Guha argued that politics should come first before science/social reform.
BJP politician Ramesh Pokhriyal has also chimed in, Should we award players who are playing?
Even cricketers could not agree; Sunil Gavaskar (in support of Kohli) and Kapil Dev urged us to keep our work serious.

Foreign Precedents and Indian Sentiment

Other countries also reward athletes similarly:

Australia conferred knighthood upon Sir Don Bradman.
Jamaica awarded Usain Bolt the Order of Jamaica.

India's Bharat Ratna remains exclusive (48 recipients since 1954).

A YouGov survey from 2025 showed:

62% of Indians want Kohli's name.
28% said they wanted the name to include non-sporting heroes.

What's next? The Political Tightrope

The Modi government will have some kind of pressure with elections coming in 2026. There were reports that the Kohli issue was raised in a PMO meeting, but nothing was finalized. For now, Kohli remains clear about his priorities, stating, My goal is to win matches, not to win awards. It will be fascinating to see what transpires from it. Whether the debate intensifies during the run-up to the 2025 ICC Awards or not, Kohli's position in history as India's strongest sportsperson of the modern era is already cemented.

A Nation’s Dilemma—Sporting Glory vs. Traditional Honors

As the debate over Virat Kohli's Bharat Ratna nomination rages on, it highlights a deeper cultural conversation about what it means to serve India. With Kohli's unprecedented achievements and impact on fitness, the question arises: should India's highest honor be reserved for traditional heroes, or can athletic excellence be recognized as a form of national service?

Parliamentarian Shashi Tharoor's poignant observation - that Kohli embodies the aspirations of a new India - highlights the need to reexamine our values. Ultimately, whether or not Kohli receives the award, his legacy will be defined by the countless young Indians he has inspired to push beyond their limits, redefining what it means to be a hero in the process.