Mahatma Gandhi died on this day 71 years ago, without wealth, titles or awards. He went on to become the most revered, studied, written and spoken about individual in the history of mankind, with the possible exception of Jesus Christ. Gandhi was five times nominated for, but never received, the Nobel Peace Prize. Just as well; the idea of forcing Bapu into the company of a Yasser Arafat or an Al Gore is mind-boggling, if not downright heretical. Naturally, there was never a question of afflicting Bapu with a Bharat Ratna — when a PIL to this effect was filed by some misguided souls, one outraged judge declared it an “atrocity against our father…he stands above all”.
The moral is lost on us. We love our awards, big or small. New ones are invented every day, to satisfy our desperate need for recognition. And we have absolutely no shame in applying for them, without stopping to question the value of an award for which one has to submit an application. It dresses up our curriculum vitae and that’s all that matters. The title honours the man, rather than the other way around. ‘Flying Sikh’ Milkha Singh turned down the Arjuna Award in disgust, pointing out that it had been cheapened over the years by giving it to lightweights. Former Indian hockey captain Ashok Kumar (son of Dhyan Chand), himself an awardee, agreed: “You can’t beg for award or demand it. Why should I blow my own trumpet that I have achieved something…the government which should pick athletes rather than players sending applications”.
The biggest prize of all, of course, is securing a spot on the annual list of Padma awardees. Many emiment personalities have actually refused the awards. Journalists Nikhil Chkaraborty and K Subramanyham did not accept the Padma Bhushan because they didn’t want an award from the establishment. Dattopant Thengde, doyenne of the RSS, turned down a Padma Bhushan in 2003. Historian Romila Thapar did so twice, in 1992 and 2005. Ustad Vilayat Khan refused a Padma Shri and a Padma Vibhushan, on the grounds that the awards committee wasn’t competent to judge his music. (Sri Sri Ravi Shankar famously turned down the Padma Vibhushan in 2015, but accepted it in 2016.) But for the most part, desperate lobbying, wheeling and dealing goes into this exercise. The Bharat Ratna and the Padma awards have been variously used as a lollipop, reward for services rendered, bribe or self-glorification. The government of the day naturally leans towards ‘friendly’ faces, be they doctors who have treated the high and mighty, businessmen who have made financial contributions, entertainers, civil servants or journalists. The end result is that getting a national award confers distinction on the recipients, instead of the other way around. It is used as a calling card, with many recipients putting it on their letterheads or visting cards, although that isn’t allowed.
The credibility of the awards has taken a hit, with the widespread perception that the awards are the preserve of a power elite. Take a look at the Padma Awards dashboard and it is obvious that Delhi accounts for the lion’s share, followed by Maharashtra. Together, these two states account for more than one-third of all national awards. Bihar has won a grand total of one Padma Vibhushan, as compared to 66 for Delhi. Likewise, it has 13 Padma Bhushans as compared to 229 for Delhi. The process of selection has been non-transparent and arbitrary, with very little input from the public.
That changed for the better when the nomination process went online. In 2016, it became mandatory. Any citizen of Indian can now upload a nomination, supported by citations. The Ministry of Home Affairs also made a pro-active effort to search out potential nominees, who would otherwise never have seen light of day. Among those selected this year are Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, the octogenarian ‘poor man’s doctor’; woman environmentalist ‘lady Tarzan’ Jamuna Tudu; ‘chaiwala’ D Prakash Rao who educates slum children and ‘gau-sevak’ Irina Bruning.
To be fair, this year’s awards are relatively balanced, with Bharat Ratnas for a former Congressman (Pranab Mukherjee), an RSS idealogue (Nanaji Deshmukh) and a music maestro (Bhupen Hazarika). Advocate H S Phoolka, until recently with the Aam Aadmi Party and the late centre-left leaning journalist Kuldip Nayer also figure in the list, which gives an impression of non-partisanship. At the end of the day, it is the Padma Awards Committee — constituted by the government which selects the awardees, so there is bound to be an element of bias. As a result, the undeserving are bound to appear alongside the deserving. The ‘award culture’ is self-defeating. The inordinate value we attach to awards and prizes renders them cheap. The writer is a senior journalist with 35 years of experience in working with major newspapers and magazines. She is now an independent writer and author.
