Civilian Awards - Honour or...?

I am very happy that former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has been awarded the country’s highest Civilian Award. As many as 43 distinguished persons of India have been awarded Bharat Ratna before Vajpayee and these include many of former Prime Ministers and Presidents. If all of them could be awarded, why not Atal Behari Vajpayee, who deserves it more than most of them, was my logic to expect this award for the 90 year old leader.

Few will disagree that Vajpayee, the leader and the poet deserved this award even before becoming the PM. Vajpayee’s last term as Prime Minister ended eleven years ago and even during the two terms the previous Govt. did not consider him good enough to deserve this award despite the fact that only three persons were given this award during these two terms and despite the fact that Vajpayee took retirement from active public life in the year 2005 and has been in news for his poor health since 2009 when he suffered a stroke. And despite the fact that the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described Vajpayee as the “Bhishm Pitamah of Indian politics” and praised him for his courageous steps. Only Manmohan Singh can explain why his Govt. did not consider the Bhishm Pitamah even for Bharat Ratna.

Perhaps this was the reason why former Prime Ministers Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi got themselves awarded Bharat Ratna during their own tenures in the years 1955 and 1971 respectively. Who has seen tomorrow? Who knows the next Govt. might not even remember the former Prime Minister? 

But now that Vajpayee has been awarded Bharat Ratna by the BJP Govt., I am not happy enough. I am happy for the respect and recognition given to the nonagenarian leader but the controversy being created over the award to Pt. Madan Mohan Malviya has marred my happiness. 

Not being able to find fault in the decision with regard to the choice of Vajpayee for the Award, questions are being raised by some on the decision of awarding Malviya. The logics being given are strange. Why Malviya? Why not scores of other national leaders? As if these questions could not be raised on such decisions in the past!

Ironically, these questions are being raised by Congressmen, forgetting that Malviya too was not only a Congress leader but their party president for two terms!

The logic that is being propounded against Malviya being awarded is that he has been given this award posthumously. These people forget that as many as eleven persons have been awarded Bharat Ratna posthumously, including two former Prime Ministers namely Lal Bahadur Shastri and Rajiv Gandhi. Pt. Malviya will be the twelfth such person. Then it is said that Malviya had breathed his last as far back as 1946. These people forget that posthumous award have been given to Gopinath Bordoloi in 1999 who breathed his last in the year 1950. Is the difference of four years so much as to make Malviya ineligible for Bharat Ratna? Just because he belongs to Varanasi, the Parliamentary constituency of Prime Minister Modi?

Height of cynicism.

Makes me doubt the very utility of these civilian awards. We all know that these awards are subjective and dependent upon the rulers of the day. Even though Vajpayee and Malviya may be the most eligible choices for the highest civilian awards, the very fact that they have been awarded during BJP regime and not earlier, makes it obvious how Govt. dependent awards these are.

There will be as many as forty five Bharat Ratna now. Add to them hundreds of Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan awardees. Difficult to remember the names. What is the utility of these awards? Do these awards make the awardees more respectable? Was Vajpayee less respectable before being awarded Bharat Ratna? Can the service to the nation rendered by Malviya be forgotten without this award?

On the contrary, the remarks made by some against the award to Malviya have not only reduced the dignity of this award but unnecessarily and avoidably dragged the esteemed name like Malviya into such despicable controversy. 

Should these civilian awards not be stopped henceforth then?