Kuldeep Nayar
(The writer is a veteran Indian journalist, author and noted columnist.)
The President comes down in a buggy, drawn by horses from Rashtrapati Bhawan to the saluting dais. Prime Minister receives him. He takes the salute. There is transparency in what is being done. Normally, India invites one Guest of Honour from a foreign nation and he or she is hosted with all pomp and how. But this year, the Republic Day will several guests of honour, mostly from the ASEAN countries will be here. To accommodate all the guests the dais, which used to be about 35 feet, has been stretched to 90 feet. A huge departure, one should say. The invitations to all ASEAN heads to celebrate our long-standing friendship and the government of India has made elaborate arrangements to strengthen the bonding with these countries.
Republic Day is also the day when awards are given to the people who have excelled themselves in various fields, especially to the services personnel who have shown gallant in times of troubles on the border and those who had sacrificed their lives defending India. These are deserving people But over the years, the other awards have come to be given to the workers of the ruling party, at present, Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP). This is, however, contrary to the thinking of framers of the constitution. They banned awards. That is the reason that when the Janata Party came in the wake of the popular movement, led by Gandhian Jayaprakash Narayan, stopped that practice. The person who initiated the awards was India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. He wanted the recognition of people, who had excelled themselves in the fields of literary, economic or scientific. No money is given because the award was too valuable to be weighed on the scales of monetary benefit.
I recall that initially the Republic Day awards, started some 50 years ago, were under the Ministry of External Affairs which Nehru headed. Subsequently, the job was entrusted to the Home Ministry which gave the responsibility to one deputy secretary.
The mode of selection was arbitrary. The Prime Minister and other ministers would suggest one or more names which I, as information officer, went on stacking in a file. Almost a month before the Republic Day I had to shortlist the names. I must admit I followed no rules while preparing the list which went to the deputy secretary in charge, then to the Home Secretary and finally to the Home Minister. I found very few changes in the list I sent.But the toughest job was preparing the citations.
In the past, when the Congress was in power it conferred the Padma Bushan award to the US hotelier Sant Singh Chatwal despite some criminal cases pending against him. There was a furore in the country but home ministry justified his selection on the plea that he was a known Indian who had served the cause of the country abroad. But there are several cases of eminent people refusing to accept the award on the ground that the panel of selectors was not capable enough to judge their work.
The lesson to be learnt is whether there should be any award at all. The experience is that the ruling party tends to give “recognition” to the people who are either members of the party are connected with it. The real purpose is lost because the recognition is extended to those who are close to the party.This only emphasizes the argument that the awards are not according to merits. This charge will remain because the selection is done by people who are nominated by the government. Government should have included the opposition leader in the selection panel but he or she would be in the minority. There should be a debate in the country to on the importance of awards. They have outlived their utility which was not there even when we they were introduced.
When the constitution has banned awards why should they be there. They violate the spirit of the constitution and the general understanding. Even their introduction was wrong. Prime Minister Narendra Modi should initiate the debate in the country to know whether the awards should continue or not.