We have a bad habit of bestowing honours posthumously
.Which is always the worse of the two options .And we also have the bad habbit
of NOT bestowing honours to people who are not in the good books of the
government .So if you are not a crony of the Congress or the BJP ,the chances are that you
will not get either a Padamshri or
Bharat Ratna when they are in power .And that is why the Bharat Ratna has eluded some of Indias
greatest sons/daughters if one political party thought you were close to another .I am going to write of two such human beings who I
think have contributed to the concept of India in more ways than some others who got
it .
The first is Atal Bihari Vajpayee .He
is a outstanding candidate for the honour and the quicker he is bestowed the Bharat Ratna the better .He is in frail
health and from reports that leak out from his residence ,he cant speak ,or
recognize .In his prime there were few who could match him for his skills at
public speaking or escape his quick wit .And he has been around for a long long time .Infact ,he narrates how as a
backbencher he took on the formidable Nehru in one of the debates in Parlaiment in the fifties .He attacked him in his indominatable style .And then goes on to laud the great
man by saying that when he met him in a reception in a hotel the same day
,Nehru said “You spoke very well today .Acchaaa bolte ho “!!That I think
was understatement .I had the privilege
of listen to him at at least 2 election rallies –one in Karol Bagh and the
other at the Ramlila Maidan in Delhi .There was pin drop silence –and the crowd
was in laks !!Such is and was the power of the man.And he used it to good effect to integrate India .Besides ,he was a fantastic
team man and managed a coalition of such diverse thinking political strands.And
he had a vision –he realized that we had to be friendly with Pakistan to move
ahead .He was a poet and had a sense of humuor –the only Indian PM to have so
.Vinod Mehta recalls that he looked quite gloomy once when he called on him ,which was uncharacteristic of the man .When asked why he was serious
,Vajpayee said “ Kyonki aapkey baad Jayalalitha aaney wali haih” .And then
burst out laughing. This most loved Indian must be given the Bharat Ratna .Immediately.
The second would be the great Dilip
Kumar .Amitabh Bacchan (himself a front runner for the coveted Bharat Ratna
),talks of how the the history of the film industry can be divided into two
parts –before Dilip Saab and after Dilip Saab! In a India coming to grips with
the notion of a new divided country post 1947 ,here was a man who united India
through the medium of the films .I have talked to people of my generation from
diverse geographical area of our country ,some of them not even understanding
Hindi /Urdu and they b were all proud Indians because Dilip Kumar became the symbol of it. His movies unified
intellectually and mentally just like the other Bharat Ratnas –Lata Mangeshkar
and Sacchin Tendulkar. Dubbed a tragedy king or a comedian this is what he said “Given my temperament, when I have either
been dubbed a tragedian or a comedian, I have always felt that they are talking
about someone else. Because I think I’m a bit of everything, mujh mein sab ka
thoda thoda sa hai." Yes he was and
is the complete man .He has been
a secular Indian and has not put a foot
wrong .Known to be magnanimous ,down to earth and knowledgeable –its time he
was rewarded our countrys highest honour .It would also give the BJP the much
needed image addition that it cares for the minorities .
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