Bhajji has dramatically said, as he is inclined to do, that if anyone proves the allegation that he was in Delhi (at the time of the Padma awards ceremony) then he will stop playing cricket. It has been alleged that Harbhajan Singh was in Delhi on the day that the Padma awards were presented, but that he skipped attending the ceremony in favour of attending another more lucrative appointment, a commercial shoot for an advertisement.
"Anyone would like to be present and receive the award. Obviously, I felt bad for not being there. I had conveyed the same to the authorities," said Harbhajan. He said it was a family compulsion and not a commercial consideration that made his miss the awards ceremony. "People should understand the kind of sacrifice we make for our family and vice versa.
It is our responsibility to spend some time with them. There were a few family commitments, some serious things... that is why I could not go," he was reported as having said in the cricket news.
"The allegation that I was in New Delhi or was shooting for an advertisement instead of attending the Padma award ceremony is completely false," Harbhajan said. "If anyone says that I was in Delhi and proves it, I will stop playing cricket."
Reports also claim that skipper Dhoni had some commercial commitments that prevented him from attending the function; however there has been no confirmation or refutation of this claim.
The home minister P Chidambaram did not give this much importance as he said that the two players had informed the authorities beforehand that they would be unable to attend and in any case there are a few absentees every year at the ceremonies.
Neither the words of the home minister nor Bhajji seem to have mollified one Senior lawyer Sudhir Ojha, who seems to have taken their absence personally and filed the case against the cricketers accusing them of defamation, criminal intimidation and intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace. A criminal case has been filed in Bihar's Muzzafarpur court according to cricket news reports.
