A Noble Award for a Noble Cause
The month January is the time for rhapsodizing by the nation on who would be the recipient for the highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna. It is announced by the Prime Minister, on the Republic Day, the 26th every year, except that few years when the award was not given.
This year, the discussion came into being when BJP leader L.K.Advani proposed the name of Atal Behari Vajpayee. Though the country at large venerates the larger than life persona of Vajpayee, the CPM, currently holding the lever of the Government, could not digest the name proposed by Advani. They had their name ready, the nonagenarian leader of their party, the die - hard communist Jyoti Basu. Mayavati is one leader whom you can find in all the rings, ready to poke her nose in all major activities, creator of a good conundrum. She also could not hold back in proposing the name of Late Kashi Ram.
Thus, the selection of Bharat Ratna becomes an akhara, and the eminent nominees look like langhot – clad Indian wrestlers. It’s a shame for the nation which our leaders never comprehend. Over the years, this great award has been given a la the same way as we elect our highest civilian and military head, the President. Though we had so many distinguished personalities in sight, we have elected Pratibha Patil as our President only a few months back. On the other day, I listened to few eminent people describing their nominees for the highest award. M.S. Sathyu said, a recipient should be from different fields having distinguished careers, but politicians should be considered only posthumously. MAK Pataudi opined that a distinguished personality may be considered, only when the person elevates himself to one above his career. A decent point he has made. Many laureates said that the politicians should be debarred from this award; for they are the ones who have degraded the honour of this award over the years. Then Manu Sanghvi, an eminent lawyer and congress spokesman pleaded that in a democracy it would not be prudent to discard any one section of the society. He said, politicians are blamed for every wrong, but won't be eulogized for their good work. My favourite columnist Nalini Singh does not want the award be given to anyone for the sake of giving every year. She would rather wait for a few years and locate a person of a stature of Buddha or Gandhi and honour him with the award. To her, it's a rarest honour, and should be given to the rarest of rare.
Though a small man I am, I have my opinion in this regard. If we consider this award as the rarest one, it should be available to all the 1.2 billion Indians, and not amongst the few distinguished and eminent people. I believe there are many people in our country who are one above others, sacrificing, contributing, caring and visionaries, but have never been eulogized, or awarded. Mother Teresa was one like that. No one in India recognized her before she gets the Nobel Prize. We have so many ratnas lying in the dust. If we really wish to honour Bharat Ratna and our nation Bharat in particular, we need to grope incessantly through the villages and towns and am sure could find out the Real Ratna. Otherwise let the Bharrat Ratnas be given to one another in the form of requital, and in the course of time people will regard this award as hooey.
This year, the discussion came into being when BJP leader L.K.Advani proposed the name of Atal Behari Vajpayee. Though the country at large venerates the larger than life persona of Vajpayee, the CPM, currently holding the lever of the Government, could not digest the name proposed by Advani. They had their name ready, the nonagenarian leader of their party, the die - hard communist Jyoti Basu. Mayavati is one leader whom you can find in all the rings, ready to poke her nose in all major activities, creator of a good conundrum. She also could not hold back in proposing the name of Late Kashi Ram.
Thus, the selection of Bharat Ratna becomes an akhara, and the eminent nominees look like langhot – clad Indian wrestlers. It’s a shame for the nation which our leaders never comprehend. Over the years, this great award has been given a la the same way as we elect our highest civilian and military head, the President. Though we had so many distinguished personalities in sight, we have elected Pratibha Patil as our President only a few months back. On the other day, I listened to few eminent people describing their nominees for the highest award. M.S. Sathyu said, a recipient should be from different fields having distinguished careers, but politicians should be considered only posthumously. MAK Pataudi opined that a distinguished personality may be considered, only when the person elevates himself to one above his career. A decent point he has made. Many laureates said that the politicians should be debarred from this award; for they are the ones who have degraded the honour of this award over the years. Then Manu Sanghvi, an eminent lawyer and congress spokesman pleaded that in a democracy it would not be prudent to discard any one section of the society. He said, politicians are blamed for every wrong, but won't be eulogized for their good work. My favourite columnist Nalini Singh does not want the award be given to anyone for the sake of giving every year. She would rather wait for a few years and locate a person of a stature of Buddha or Gandhi and honour him with the award. To her, it's a rarest honour, and should be given to the rarest of rare.
Though a small man I am, I have my opinion in this regard. If we consider this award as the rarest one, it should be available to all the 1.2 billion Indians, and not amongst the few distinguished and eminent people. I believe there are many people in our country who are one above others, sacrificing, contributing, caring and visionaries, but have never been eulogized, or awarded. Mother Teresa was one like that. No one in India recognized her before she gets the Nobel Prize. We have so many ratnas lying in the dust. If we really wish to honour Bharat Ratna and our nation Bharat in particular, we need to grope incessantly through the villages and towns and am sure could find out the Real Ratna. Otherwise let the Bharrat Ratnas be given to one another in the form of requital, and in the course of time people will regard this award as hooey.
posted by Mahi Prasad | 8:53 AM
2 Comments:
sir i completely agree with you. the fact that firstly advani proposes the name of our ex-pm only to be followed by cpm's candidate shows that these people are only vying for political superiority. it seems, that they are in a rat race for the ratna the same way as it was during the time of the elections for the presidential post. also i completely agree with you that the real ratna of our country might be somewhere in the towns or the villages of this country but to find him/her or wait for him/her to emerge out of his/her shadow might be cumbersome.
i seriously think that ones in the fray for the award are the ones who should definitely be denied this honor. the award is for the real ratna, one who doesnot believe in getting credit or reward for his/her work but still carries on with utmost dedication and perseverance.
also there should not be any necessity to award this honor every year and we can definitely wait till the time we find our real ratna.
-jivesh goyal, chandigarh.
Bharat Ratna is the highest civilian award in India.It is an utter digust to see that every year people engage themselves in a tug-of-war of bringing the honour in their camps.We need to have a slection panel which selects the recipients irrespective of the faction or strength of people backing their names.
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