By?Anand Sinha
Edited by Namitha Sadanand, Senoir editor, The Indian economist
As the Narendra Modi?led NDA?government decides to confer the Bharat?Ratna awards for 2014, a controversy has kicked in because of the?speculation?surrounding?the?inclusion of late Indian freedom fighter Netaji Subhash?Chandra Bose?s name in the list. Earlier, the inclusion of the cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar had also sparked a controversy because the great hockey master Major Dhyan Chand?hasn?t been awarded the award until now.
The Bharat Ratna is the highest civilian award awarded by the government of India. Like most civilian awards, the Bharat Ratna has also not been unblemished. This year, the Bhartiya Janta Party?is?said to be?considering?Netaji?Subhas?Chandra Bose along with?its?party patriarch Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The relatives of the Netaji have very rightly objected saying that?figures?like?Netaji?and?Gandhiji?are above the Bharat?Ratna,?and it is completely ridiculous to confer the award on him after many minor figures like the members?of the Nehru- Gandhi family?have been conferred the award.?The Congress Party on the other hand has grabbed the opportunity for accusing the BJP of being anti- minority and anti- Dalit because the list does not include?the?names of Maulana Abul Kalaam Azad, the founder of the Aligarh Muslim University, and Kanshi Ram, the Bahujan Samaj Party founder.
It is a noteworthy fact that some of the greatest freedom fighters of India like Sardar Bhagat Singh,?Rajguru,?Sukhdev, Gopal Krishna?Gokhle?and many more have not been awarded the Bharat?Ratna. The Congress Party during its rule had?not shied away from awarding?even?Indira?and Rajiv Gandhi with the Bharat Ratna, though?the mother?was?a dictator and the son?is even not considered a competent statesman today.?On the other hand, the BJP has always politicised figures like Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Netaji?Subhash?Chandra Bose for its own political gain,?because of the?differences?key Congress members like?Gandhiji?and?Jawahar?Lal?Nehru?shared with them.
The field of sports is also not untouched by controversy. When Sachin Tendulkar?s name was announced for the award, supposedly at the behest of the hysterical Rahul Gandhi,?hockey fans very rightly objected to it because the hockey legend Major?Dhyan?Chand had?not been conferred?with?the award, despite being Sachin’s?senior.?Early last year,?awardee?Dr.?Amartya Sen, economist- philosopher and the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economics was threatened by?BJP politicians with taking away his Bharat?Ratna?because he had criticised the then BJP PM-candidate?Narendra?Modi for his economic policies and pro- Hindu politics.?He had been awarded with the prize during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee led NDA government.?Nandana?Sen, his actor- daughter was also?respected?accordingly.
When one comes to?civilian awards like?the?Padma Sri, Padma?Bhushan?and Padma?Vibhushan, the prestige of the awards has been even more maligned because of the inclusion of some very popular though?mediocre?artists. If rumours are to be believed, then these civilian awards are even lobbied for.
It is utterly useless to confer the Bharat?Ratna?on the greatest contributors of India after so many years because they are truly above the status of these awards.?Whether or not?Netaji?is conferred with the award,?his reputation is undoubtedly?kept in?high?regard?in the hearts of the people of India.?The politicisation of the highest civilian awards of India by most of the political parties has?tarnished the reputation?of the awards themselves.?Now it is to be seen how the present government and the subsequent governments deal with it.
Currently based in Delhi, Anand is an English literature student at the Delhi College of Arts and Commerce, University of Delhi. After working as a content writer and editor for an online firm for a few months, he interned at Youth Ki Awaaz. Sinha defines his political stand as centre-left. His interests include literature, cinema, music, philosophy and world politics.?
