Blinded mice & jewel of India
Twenty-sixth January visited to remind us that we had given to ourselves a Republic with democratic and secular dispensations. Long live the Republic and long live the Crown of Homo sapiens’ exalted civilisation.
India was the Jewel of the Crown of Britain too. It was studded with modern age jewels like Tilak, Lal-Bal-Pal, Gandhi, Subhash and Jawahar who had ushered in the new era of independent Indian homeland. However, India rediscovered the Indian Jewels in 1954 when the civilian awards like Bharat Ratna, Padma Bibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shree etc, were instituted during the presidency of Dr. Rajendra Prasad.
Bestowing civilian honours on the distinguished persona of the nation and some international personalities is not only a speciality of the democratic countries like France, UK and USA etc. This mechanism recognises the illustrious personalities and inspires the people to emulate them. Though inherited from the feudal and imperial past the civilian award conferring system has a very high democratic content. Such awards do not confer mansabdaris, zamindaris and status of distinguished lords like Rai Bahadurs and Khan Bahadurs, but recognise the distinguished position earned through sacrifice, service and contribution towards nation building.
Since 1954, 40 illustrious sons and daughters (5 including Mother Theresa) of the country and two foreign personalities have been honoured with the highest award. It is not an accident that the politicians and bureaucrats decide the endowment of the highest national honour. They are the rulers and the rulers are presumed to be the wisest owls. Out of forty awardees, twenty two are politicians (including freedom fighters). Only eight artists and scholars, one industrialist (JRD Tata), five scientists/engineer/educationists, one philosopher-statesman (Dr. Radhakrishnana) and two foreigners have been honoured with the highest national award.
Without any malice to any individual, political party and personality, it can be deduced that in our national perception only the top level politicians are the best nation builders. Political personalities across the country, irrespective of their hues, played cardinal roles in steering the freedom struggle. After independence, politics has assumed the centre stage of the democratic system. However, it is interesting to note that out of twenty two political giants nineteen belong to Indian National Congress, and only three to other parties, including Baba Saheb Ambedkar.
The other nonconformist Subhash Chandra Bose was awarded Bharat Ratna but it was withdrawn, as the authorities could not conclusively prove that the eternal rebel had definitely died in the alleged air accident. It is presumed that a revolutionary like him would not turn around in his grave (if he had one) for missing the national honour.
Statistics do not normally lie. Would someone be very irrelevant if he cynically describes the Bharat Ratna award as a Congress gravy train? Those who presume to know should also know the answer.
It is, therefore, not surprising that a tactically shrewd Advani representing, in US lingo, ‘the right reactionary Hindu nationalist party’ had let a ferocious cat out in the holy congregation of Congress pigeons, who alone claim to be the custodian of the great secular country. The cat is none other than Atal Bihari Vajpayee, a veteran contemporary of other towering figures like Jawaharlal, Indira and Rajiv Gandhi-all belonging to the same political and family clan.
Obviously, in Congress, Left and other ‘secularist’ (read casteist) perception a ‘right reactionary Hindu nationalist’ has no claim to the highest honour of the nation. Only ‘secular brand’ Hindus belonging to the Congress and a rare Buddhist leader (read Ambedkar), a Tamil ally (read M. G. Ramachandran) and a renegade socialist (read Jayprakash Narayan) are qualified to make the grade.
That one industrialist and a few artists, scholars and scientists have made the grade indicate that over 50% of the national heroes are from the political stable of a particular breed and the real jewels of India, who have earned national and international recognition by excelling in their respective fields of activities, are hard to come by. To become jewels in the eyes of the politicians and the bureaucrats these luminous national figures would, either have to earn international recognition or reign over the hearts of the people; say the artists like Lata Mangeshkar, Satyajit Roy, Ustad Bismillah Khan and a Nobel laureate like Amartya Sen.
A Vajpayee is a political untouchable and cannot claim entry into the Congress-brand secular stable. It is not surprising that some one in the Congress suddenly popped up the name of Jyoti Basu, the doyen of Left politics in West Bengal with a view to put the first brake to the Vajpayee rath. Stout denial from the Left exposed the raw machination of the Congress.
The cacophony was later joined by Mayawati (Kansiram), Laloo Prasad Yadav (Karpuri Thakur), and Ram Vilas Paswan (read Jyotibha Phule and Mohammad Rafi). Loud murmurs from the south echoed the name of M. Karunanidhi. Another Congress stalwart, Babu Jagjivan Ram is waiting for a belated posthumous recognition. Besides his daughter important personalities like V. P. Singh, I. K. Gujral and R. Venkataramn have joined voices with Meira Kumar, Jagjivan ram’s daughter. Some one also butted in for Kisan leader Chowdhry Charan Singh.
So, why did a ‘tactless prime ministerial candidate of the right reactionary Hindu nationalist party’ made the foolish move? Is he as foolish as some political commentators would like to believe? Advani has made this move with great political calculation. By letting lose the ‘communalist cat amongst the secular pigeons’ the BJP leader has again exposed that in India the jewels mostly come from the ‘secular’ mine of the Congress and its peripheral allies. The Jewels of India are not found in ‘Hindu seams’ of the nation’s jewel bearing mines. This message would not get lost among those who recently sent loud messages to the Congress and others that ‘communal Hindu baiting’ does not really pay; not at this juncture of Indian history. This non-secular truth is perhaps required to be examined and a fresh appraisal of the national spectrum is necessary to allocate some space to the ‘right reactionary communal Hindus.’ Perhaps no one can afford to dream that the Hindus have ceased to be the strongest building blocks of the nation; that includes Advani-Vajpayee brand Hindus too. It should also not be forgotten that the ‘right reactionary Hindu party’ during its tenure in South Block had given Ratna award to only one politician (Gopinath Bordoloi), one economist (Amartya Sen) and three artists-Ravi Shankar, Lata Mangeshkar and Ustad Bismillah Khan. They did not honour Shyama Prasad Mukherjee or Deen Dayal Upadhaya.
Moreover, the country should not forget that Vajpayee had creditably piloted the country against Pakistan’s treacherous attack in Kargil and he was person who thawed the frozen Indo-Pak relationship and put it on peace rail. Perhaps this one ‘communal Hindu leader’ deserved recognition of the country.
Should we pay little more attention to the real Jewels of India and leave aside the unduly tilted scale in favour of particular brands of politicians? Should the master not start believing that jewels also exist outside the pale of politics and bureaucracy? Has not such undue weightage to political jewels ignored the real jewels in the fields of science, technology, education, social reformers, environmentalists, artists and other segments of nation builders? Are there no jewels among the Aam Aadmi of Bharat? Statistics of the Bharat Ratna recipients tend to support the tainted bias of the political class and the bureaucrats.
Those who are fortunate to cat-walk the corridors of North and South Block and state government secretariats flaunting their assets and moneybags know how the ant-army of Shree, Bhushan, Bibhushan and Ratna seekers persistently pursue the givers of coveted civil honours of the country. The members of the Padma Award Committee are also visited by the crooning honeybees. As a live witness to corridor walking, I happen to know some of the Padma recipients and their maneauvres. One Padma recipient claimed rather proudly that there was nothing wrong in stalking the corridors coveting a civil honour in a country, where everything could be purchased. His wisdom is eternally padmasambhava.
Some electronic news channel had floated a few names like Ratan Tata, M. F. Hussain etc for electronic voting. There are more pioneering industrialists in India, including late Dhirubhai Ambani and Lakshmi Mittal who have brought glory to India. None of them deserves the Jewel of India.
However, the IT industry has placed India on the global map of information technology, globalisation of economy and secured a place for India in the ‘future world economic transformation.’ Should India look into this new expanding horizon and try to understand what has the contribution of people like N. R. Narayana Murthy been? His Infosys Technologies Limited is the first Indian multinational information technology company that is not owned by any family. Statistics aside a personality like Narayana Murthy has transformed the dreams of millions of Indians. Did he deserve only a Padma Bibhushan?
Should the nation coolly think over the importance of the jewels in the fields of national activities beyond the narrow confines of politics; that too of certain specific brands? Should we not recognise that ‘reactionaries and communalists’ like Vajpayee also reign over millions of hearts?
The Jewels of India do not simply grow in the political stables and bureaucratic cubicles. Would the Padma Award Committee and their masters gather courage to select two really ‘Sarvhara’ persons of India and say that next year’s Bharat Ratna would be awarded to the Aam Aadmi? Are they not the real masters of the political and bureaucratic stable dwellers? Do not they carbonise the mine-seams of so-called Bharat Ratnas by their silent suffering and death?
June 5th, 2008 at 9:55 am
Having remained a senior bureaucrat I know how shamefully the Padma aspirants lobby in the North and South Block and miniter’s homes. I know a cement manufacturing industrialist who paid Rs. 50 laks to a minister to get a Padma award. It is a shame to the nation.
June 19th, 2008 at 2:18 am
pls tell his name and expose him.
June 25th, 2008 at 9:05 am
This article has peeled of layers of glamour and honour from the facrs of nationa awards. Common people do not know hop moneyed and influential people stalk the corridors of power for Padma erc awards. Shame to this country!