Weekend

Continuing with my last week end blog on Bharat Ratna winners

Decade of 90s (1990-99)

1. BR Ambedkar (Posthumous) 199o- Political Activist, Chairperson of Indian Constitution Assembly.
2. Nelson Mandela 1990- South African  Apartheid Leader, Foreign citizen
3. Rajiv Gandhi(Posthumous) 1991- Politician and former PM
4. Sardar Patel (Posthumous) 1991- freedom Fighter, First Deputy PM of the country.
5. Morarji Desai 1991- Gandhian follower, former Deputy PM and 4th PM of the country.
6. Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad(Posthumous) 1992-Educationist, Freedom Fighter and former Cabinet Minister.
7. JRD Tata 1992- Philanthropist, Industrialist.
8. Satyajit Ray 1992- Noted Film Maker
9. Gulzarlal Nanda ( Posthumous)1992- freedom Fighter, Activist and twice Interim PM of the country.
10. Aruna Asif Ali(Posthumous) 1997- Freedom Fighter.
11. APJ Abdul Kalam 1997- Aeronautic Engineer and later 11th President.
12. MS Subalakshmi-1998- Carnatic Classical Singer.
13. C Subramaniam 1998- Activist and former Cabinet Minister.
14. Jaiprakash Narayan(Posthumous)-1999- Social and Political Activist
15. Amartya Sen 1999- Economist, and Nobel Prize Winner.(Person of Indian Origin)
16. Gopinath Bordoi-Activist and former CM of Assam
17. Ravi Shankar-  Sitarist ( he became American citizen afterwards )

You will observe that during this decade maximum Bharat Ratna awards were given, and most of them were awards due to political compulsion. Ambedkar’s follower of Dalit communities and Budhist were demanding Bharat Ratna for him and to pacify them the award was conferred to him  more than three decades after his death. Rajiv Gandhi did not do any thing great to deserve this honour but  as he was son of Indira Gandhi and was killed in terror attack the subsequent Cong govt awarded Bharat Ratna to him and just to pacify other Congressmen they gave the award to Morarji Desai and Sardar Patel also. I do not know whether Gulzarlal Nanda, Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad, Gopinath Bordoi and C Subramaniam of Congress party did any thing great to deserve  this honour. Regarding Ravi Shankar, it has been said that when he was informed that he was been recommended for Padma Vibhushan, he said will not accept this award but only accept Bharat Ratna, otherwise he will leave the country. After getting the award he eventually became American citizen.  When Ravi Shankar was conferred with coveted award, that time Bhimsen Joshi commented why the same honour is not conferred on him.

Decade of 2000 to 2009

1. Lata Mangeshkar 2001- Play Back Singer
2. Ustad Bismillah Khan 2001- World Famous Shenai Player
3. Bhimsen Joshi 2008- Hindustani Classical Singer

After too many controversy in last decade, this was the only decade when no political Leader was conferred with the honour of Bharat Ratna.

Decade of 2010 to 2017

1. Sachin Tendulkar 2014- Cricketeer
2. Prof CN Rao 2014- Scientist
3. Atal Bihar Vajpayee 2015-Political Statesman, Former PM
4.  Madan Mohan Malaviya(Posthumous)- Famous Educationist of 20th Century.

In this decade also(uptil now) awards have been curtailed and only deserving people were honoured with this coveted award.

Now I want to elaborate on some names who richly deserves/deserved this honour

1. Mohd Rafi- His fans all over the world are commenting over the years that if Lata Mangeshkar can be given Bharat Ratna, then why not him. The contribution of Rafi to Indian music is no lesser than Lata, but as he is no more living person , died almost 38 years back, there is no one in political circe to back him. Still his songs are played maximum on the music channels. ( Radio & TV).
2. Ratan Tata- No one has done for the Indian Industries,  what he has done. Like his uncle JRD Tata he is the most honest person, who is continuing with Tata group philosophy of Business with purpose and charity. It has been said that he would have been richest person in India, if Tata group was not diverting almost 80% of their profits for charitable cause.

These 2 are the most deserving candidates for the Bharat Ratna award.

Few other names which should also be considered are

Narayan Murthy of Infosys,

Amitabh Bachchan,

Dhyan Chand(Hockey Player of pre independent era),

Raj Kapoor(the biggest Showman and  the first person from the Indian Film Industry to get the international fame),

Anna Hazare     ( The crusader against corruption, in this century)

Friends, if you have any other name who deserve this award, please mention in your feed backs and comments.