My father should get Bharat Ratna: Deepika

Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone has joined in the Bharat Ratna debate saying her father and former India badminton star Prakash Padukone deserves the highest civilian award.

When asked if she supported Sachin Tendulkar or Dhyan Chand's nominations for the Bharat Ratna, Deepika told Rediff.com, "Prakash Padukone should get the highest civilian award for his outstanding achievements in the badminton and becoming the first Indian to win All England Championship".

While Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Shivraj Singh Chauhan advocated the name of Major Dhyan Chand for the prestigious award, Sachin Tendulkar's candidature was backed by Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs, Ajay Maken and a large section of MP including regional party Shiv Sena.

Not to be left out, the 'Flying Sikh', Milkha Singh, said his name should also be considered for the honour.

Deepika, once, a national level badminton player herself, decided to quit the sport to get into modeling and later into the film industry.

"I learnt badminton from my father Prakash Padukone and slowly moved upwards and reached the national level. I joined Olympic Gold Quest (OGQ) only sometime back. I hope to promote it and My dream is to make OGQ into a movement," she said.

"Schools should support sports rather then laying too much importance on academics," she added.

The Bollywood siren has been spending time updating herself with the various developments in the organisation which was "launched by two best known sportspersons in India -- Geet Sethi (billards champion) and my father," she said.

Sharing her views on eradicating the menace of doping, Deepika said, "Currently we have twenty-seven sportspersons enrolled with OGQ. The only way we can fight misuse of drugs in enhancing performance is to give the sportspersons in OGQ a list of what drugs they can use and what to avoid.

"It is not possible to monitor these sportspersons on a daily basis. If someone is found using drugs then he/she would stop getting any thing from the organisation till his or her name is cleared," she said.