Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian award of the
Republic of India is for exceptional and distinguished services. Since inception (till 2019), this honour has gone to about
300 individuals including 19 non-citizens and 12, posthumous.
Persons honoured include 68 in Public Affairs; 57 in Arts; 53 in Civil Service; 40 in Literature & Education; 35 in Science & Engineering; 17 in Social Work; 13 in Medicine; 12 in Trade & Industry; 3 in Sports and 5 in other areas.
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar was the first to receive the award in 1968 in Science & Engineering, in the 14th year of the institution of Padma Awards in 1954.
I have a feeling the process of selection for the honour needs a course correction to respond to Nation's growing shift to areas of technology while not ignoring the importance of dance, music, literature, public affairs and civil service etc.
Persons honoured include 68 in Public Affairs; 57 in Arts; 53 in Civil Service; 40 in Literature & Education; 35 in Science & Engineering; 17 in Social Work; 13 in Medicine; 12 in Trade & Industry; 3 in Sports and 5 in other areas.
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar was the first to receive the award in 1968 in Science & Engineering, in the 14th year of the institution of Padma Awards in 1954.
I have a feeling the process of selection for the honour needs a course correction to respond to Nation's growing shift to areas of technology while not ignoring the importance of dance, music, literature, public affairs and civil service etc.
P. N. Haksar was offered the Padma Vibhushan Award in 1973
for, among other services, his crucial diplomatic role in brokering the
Indo-Soviet Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation and the Shimla Agreement. He
declined the offer. He had said, "Accepting an award for work done somehow
causes an inexplicable discomfort to me."
In the list of Padma Awardees of 2019, one finds Devrapalli
Prakash Rao, the selfless Chaiwalla of Cuttack, who spends half of the earnings
to educate children of slums. He has been honoured with Padma Shri. " Why
was he not in the list of Padma Bhushans , like a former Bureaucrat?" I
asked myself.
That brings me to the issue of having a three-tier Padma
Awards. Perhaps it would be in consonance with the solemn resolve of ours, the
people of India, to secure to all its citizens: EQUALITY of status and of
opportunity, if we could do away with the present three-tier arrangement and
settle for one and only Padma Shri in addition to Bharat Ratna.
In the speedometer of your car, you would see 0km/hour at
one end and see, say, 200km/hour at the extreme end at the right and 100km/hour
at the middle. This configuration does not mean that you should drive at the
maximum speed of 200 km per hour. For your convenience, the preferred speed of
100 km/hour is put at the middle. What I am trying to explain is that the
maximum speed indicted in the speedometer is not really meant to be achieved.
The guidelines on Bharat Ratna mention about the maximum number of persons who
may be honoured in a year and the number is 3. This number, I thought, was akin
to the maximum speed of a speedometer.
How
does one evaluate between two talented artists, say, Dipti Naval and Vidya
Balan or between an Anupam Kher and a Kamal Hassan and decide on a Padma Award?
Do they invite applications? In the final analysis, however, one wonders if the
Padma awards are in sync with the democratic temper of the polity. Perhaps
Morarji Desai, as Prime Minister, was right, in doing away with Padma Awards.
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