The highest civilian award conferred on an Indian in India is "Bharat Ratna ".Some notable personalities both political and non-political who had been conferred with ‘Bharat Ratna’ were Nehru, Dr.Ambedkar,M.S.Subbulakshmi,Dr.MGR and so on.
In recent times active campaign is going on for conferring the highest civilian award on some notable political personalities.The UP Chief Minister Ms.Mayavathi is clamouring for the award to be conferred on her political mentor, guru and a champion of Dalit movement, late. Kanshiram.He deserves it for all his services rendered for the cause of Dalits,for being a founder of the BSP party, the present ruling party in the state of UP.Of course,the award if announced,should be conferred only posthumously.
Another name under active recommendation is Mr.Atal Bihari Vajpayee, our former Prime Minister.The veteran BJP leader L.K.Advani is actively campaigning for the award in favour of Vajpayee and he has also written a letter in this regard to the Prime Minister.Mr.Advani’s idea and move is criticised by Lalu Prasad Yadav as a political gimmick so as to remove his main contendor for the prime ministership.Of course when Vajpayee himself wants to retire from active politics and not want to be a contendor for the post of prime ministership, Lalu’s allegation is unfounded and out of place.
Another famous political personality that has hit the news is Mr.Jyoti Basu, the veteran CPI(M)leader.Though Mr.Basu is well deserved to receive Bharat Ratna, he himself poohpoohed the idea stating that he is not in contention for the award.After all he has been the only political personality to have served the longest period as the chief minister of a state, i.e West Bengal, between,1977 to 2000,continuously.But CPI(M) party will not support the idea of conferring the award because they donot accept political awards.When the then Central Government actively considered the idea of conferring the ‘Padma Vibushan’in favour of EMS.Namboodaripad, it was refused by both EMS and and the party.
Our Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh is of the view that it is too early to consider the names for conferring the award.He is right.