Bharat Ratna
BJP leader Advani's proposal set the ball rolling and other parties followed with their own wishlists: Jyoti Basu, Kanshi Ram, Babu Jagjivan Ram, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Sachin Tendulkar, even Bhahadur Shah Zafar.

The honour to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose—awarded posthumously in 1992—was withdrawn after the government failed to come up with conclusive evidence to establish Netaji's death.
Mahatma Gandhi was never bestowed the honour—possibly because the original statute of January 1954 did not talk of posthumous awards.
Pandit Jasraj accused sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar of lobbying for the Bharat Ratna in 1999.

Padma awards
The late E.M.S. Namoodiripad said no to then prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao's offer of a Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian award, saying the party does not accept state awards. The CPM's Laxmi Sehgal had also refused her freedom fighters' pension and a Padma award.
In 2002, danseuse Sitara Devi refused to accept the Padma Bhushan, saying she would not accept any award less than the Bharat Ratna.
Sitar maestro Ustad Vilayat Khan refused the Padma Shri and the Padma Vibhushan awards in 1964 and 1968, saying the awards committee was incompetent to judge artistic creativity

National Film Awards
In 2006, documentary filmmaker Anand Patwardhan filed a petition in the Bombay High Court challenging the entry criteria for the awards, which does not allow films without a censor certificate.
Last year, jury member Sahyamli Banerjee Dev alleged that the 2005 awards were “fixed” and that Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Black did not qualify for the best film award since it was an adaptation of the English feature film The Miracle Worker of 1962.
Raveena Tandon's best actress award for Daaman in 2001 kicked up a row when jury member Pradeep Krishnan resigned objecting to the presence of Tandon's uncle on the jury.

... contd.