By Priya Ranjan Sahu
Few hours after the central government announced the list of Padma awadees on the eve of January 26, noted writer Gita Mehta declined the Padma Shri award to be conferred on her.
In a press note, Mehta said: “I am deeply honoured that the Government of India should think me worthy of a Padma Shri but with great regret I feel I must decline as there is a general election looming and the timing of the award might be misconstrued, causing embarrassment both to the Government and myself, which I would much regret.”
Besides being an acclaimed writer known internationally, Mehta happens to be the elder sister of Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik. Her statement refusing the Padma Shri is civilised and polite. Nevertheless, it is a tight slap on the face of the Modi government, which has announced the Padma and Bharat Ratna awards with an eye on the 2019 general elections.
Even a layman without any interests in politics can clearly see that by chosing Mehta for a Padma Shri award, the Modi government was trying to cosy up with Patnaik, just as it was trying to disarm the Congress as well as to woo the people of West Bengal by announcing the name of former president Pranab Mukherjee for Bharat Ratna.
Besides, political considerations as per ‘look east’ policy of the BJP are evident in awarding Bharat Ratna to Mukherjee and late Bhupen Hazarika, legendary Assamese musician, poet and filmmaker. As part of the same policy, the BJP government perhaps announced Padma Shri for Mehta as a consolation to Odisha, though there has been a clamour in the state for Bharat Ratna for her father Biju Patnaik for a long time.
It must be recorded that considering 76-year-old Mehta’s achievements in literary field, Padma Shri award came her way a bit too late. She wrote her fascinating international best seller non-fiction, Karma Cola, on marketing of international spirituality in the West way back in 1979. She had followed it up with other credible literary works.
When the work of a person of eminence is recognised late and not matched by appropriate award, it becomes a kind of humiliation to him or her. On that count too, she did the right thing in declining the state award.
Still, many deserving people who are treated in the same manner accept those awards without a whimper of protest. Only few have great conviction and integrity to refuse such awards.
Renowned journalist Nikhil Chakraborty, who founded iconic Mainstream magazine, had refused the Padma Bhushan award conferred on him by the National Front government in 1990 saying that “a journalist carrying his professional obligations should not appear to be close to any government and/ or any political establishment”.
Politicising state honours is not confined to the Modi government alone. Eyebrows were raised when the Congress government awarded cricketer Sachin Tendulkar with Bharat Ratna in 2014. Similarly, the Bharat Ratna to former Tamil Nadu chief minister M.G. Ramachandran in 1988, a year after his death, created a storm in political circles because it was seen as a political compulsion of the Congress government headed by former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.
Bharat Ratna and Padma awards are meant for people with immense contribution to the country. They will lose their respect and trustworthiness if the government of the day used them for its own political ends.
