TeaHis column is not about those who have received or are likely to receive the Bharat Ratna and Padma awards, but about individuals who have refused to accept the honor – either because of their ‘principled’ objection Or because of their ideological system.
In the first year of the awards’ inception in 1954, Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad refused to accept the Bharat Ratna: he said that serving members of the Union Cabinet (or in the selection committee?) were in the position of ‘. control and authority’, and should avoid these ‘temptations’. Another person who declined the Bharat Ratna was HN Kunzru, a member of the States Reorganization Commission (SRC), who opposed the idea of awarding awards, honors or titles by the state in the Constituent Assembly debates. He thought it would not be proper of him to accept the award. Kunzru was the founder of the Indian School of International Studies – which later transformed into Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) – and the India International Centre.
Incidentally, the Chairman of the SRC, Justice Fazal Ali, was only offered the Padma Vibhushan, which he accepted. Justice Fazal Ali had earlier received the title Khan sir , Khan Bahadur And this Order of the British Empire (OBE). He was awarded a knighthood on 1 May 1942 by the Viceroy, Lord Linlithgow. It was a rare example of a person being honored by both rule And this Swarajya, (Government of India under British rule and Government of independent India)
The third member of the SRC, KM Panikkar, was not given any of these honours, but was among the 12 members nominated by the President to the Rajya Sabha for a six-year term. This was due to his ‘contributions towards art, literature, science and social services’ as per Articles 4(1) and 80(2) of the Constitution of India in 1959.
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posthumous recognition
When the Bharat Ratna and Padma awards were introduced, they were only for living persons. To honor the Bharat Ratna to late Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, it was decided to confer the award posthumously before the Republic Day of 1966. He died a fortnight ago after signing it in Tashkent, Uzbekistan India-Pakistan peace accord, Later in 1992, the family of Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad accepted the award posthumously, but the award of the same to Subhash Chandra Bose drew a lot of criticism and a public interest litigation was filed in the Calcutta High Court. The petition argued that the government had not officially acknowledged Bose’s death on 18 August 1945. It also drew the court’s attention to the dissent note of Subhash Bose’s brother in the Shah Nawaz Committee. report good of 1956. The PIL states that the findings of the GD Khosla Report of 1974 also cannot be treated as ‘final’., Furthermore, Bose’s family felt that it was too late for him to accept the recognition.
Incidentally, it must be placed on record that in January 2020, the Supreme Court dismissed a PIL seeking Bharat Ratna for MK Gandhi. Supreme Court Told: “He is way above Bharat Ratna. He is highly respected by the people… What is Bharat Ratna to Mahatma Gandhi?” In fact, Gandhi’s birthday is now celebrated by the United Nations (UN) as the International Day of Nonviolence.
Padma Awards
The first person to refuse the Padma Vibhushan award was PN Haksar, Principal Secretary to the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1973. He felt that he was simply doing his duty and ‘somehow accepting a reward for a job well done causes an inexplicable inconvenience’. Haksar was recognized for the successful conduct of the Shimla (Shimla) Agreement in 1972 and the signing of the Indo-Soviet Friendship and Cooperation Treaty. This tradition was followed by civil servants SR Sankaran and K Subramaniam, who took the view that civil servants should not accept awards for doing what they should have done.
Comrade EMS Namboodiripad, a member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), and later Jyoti Basu had to refuse the Padma Vibhushan as their party did not allow them to accept it. CPI’s Buddhadeb Bhattacharya was offered the Padma Bhushan in 2013, but his party again put its foot down, Interestingly, communist leaders in government positions in both China and the erstwhile Soviet Union are known to have accepted state awards.
Swami Ranganathananda recused himself from receiving the award as he felt that recognition should be given to the Ramakrishna Mission as an institution and not to him as an individual. However, unlike the Nobel Prize, there is no provision for awarding the Padma Vibhushan to an institution.
In 2011, the family of Lakshmi Chand Jain, a pioneer of the cooperative and handicrafts movement and India’s High Commissioner to South Africa, refused to accept the posthumous honor of the Padma Vibhushan ‘as Jain was against accepting state honours’. Journalists Nikhil Chakraborty and Virendra Kapoor, and academics GS Ghurye (sociology) and Romila Thapar (history) also declined the awards. They realized that accepting state patronage might affect their independence. Although there are many more examples of journalists, writers, social workers and activists returning their National Awards to mark their protest against the political philosophy or actions of the government in power, this one would be worthy of another column.
Before concluding, it would be important to mention that in 1969, Congress leader Acharya J.B. Kriplani had introduced a private member’s bill, titled The Embellishment on Persons (Abolition) Bill, 1969. Some degree of ‘rationality’ in the selection process. while the motion could not be passed, Most of the members agreed with the view that these honors were not ‘titles’ and could not be prefixed or suffixed to a person’s name, otherwise it would be a violation of Article 18 of the Constitution, which guaranteed personal and Personal both were abolished. hereditary title.
These days the government asks nominees beforehand whether they will accept the award, to avoid any embarrassment. Regarding the return of an award, there are many other ways of expressing differences with the current government. The award is a recognition given on behalf of the nation by an elected government at a particular time, its withdrawal at a later date is in bad taste.
Sanjeev Chopra is a former IAS officer and Festival Director of Valley of Words. Until recently, he was the director of the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration. He tweeted @ChopraSanjeev. Thoughts are personal.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)