Ratna clamour rises, BJP at loss for words

Monday saw a number of leaders hopping the Bharat Ratna bandwagon, demanding the honour for their “jewels”. LJP leader Ramvilas Paswan demanded Bharat Ratna for Mahatma Jyotiba Phule, Babu Jagjivan Ram, and Mohd Rafi; Union Minister Raghuvansh Prasad demanded it for Karpuri Thakur; Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for his late father Biju Patnaik and Assam state unit of the Samajwadi Party wants it for Mulayam Singh. Mayawati has already demanded the honour for Kanshi Ram last week.

While the Congress is keeping a safe distance from the controversy, the BJP, which kickstarted it all, is unable to formulate a position on the demands. “We will respond to these questions in due time,” BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said, when questioned on the party’s position on awarding Bharat Ratna to Phule, Karpuri Thakur, Rammanohar Lohia, Kanshi Ram, Jagjivan Ram etc.

Particularly troublesome for the BJP is the demand from Patnaik, a close ally of the party. “There have been demands for conferring Bharat Ratna to Biju Babu earlier too, but now we will do this in a dignified and correct manner to suit the legendary personality,” the Orissa CM said on Monday. Leaders of the Biju Janata Dal also pointed out that Biju Patnaik has been conferred several prestigious civilian honours in Indonesia and Russia but has not been not given proper recognition in India. Biju Patnaik was a freedom fighter, industrialist and statesman, they said.

Paswan is unwilling to concede the space of Dalit politics to either Mayawati or Kanshi Ram and Bharat Ratna is the battlefield now. “Kanshi Ram was leader for a party. In fact, his influence did not even cross a single state,” said Paswan during a press conference in the Capital on Monday. Paswan, in fact, added that given a choice he would “rate Babu Jagjivan Ram above Kanshi Ram for the prestigious award”.

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