Skip to main content

The politics of Bharat Ratna

Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Madan Mohan Malviya, both deserve the Bharat Ratna.  One is an eminent statesman and the other is a reputed freedom fighter.  Nevertheless there is something sinister about the motive.

Ever since the Modi government took charge there has been a concerted effort to distort history and manufacture a monolithic culture.  Sanskrit being forced upon certain students midway through an academic session and making the Christmas day a working day indirectly are just two examples.

The motive is clear: make India a nation of people believing in a single religion and possessing a single culture. It is neither possible nor desirable an objective. Majoritarianism is just another version of fascism.

At any rate, when pluralism has become a necessity in a globalized world why would India seek to eliminate diversity? Even more significantly, can all Indians really be Hindus? Should they?  Why?

The BJP already has much to answer.  It will soon have too much to answer, it seems.

Comments

  1. Ever since the Modi government took charge there has been a concerted effort to distort history..? Can you make it clear because most of us who believed in modi is thinking that he is saving our heritage, cultures and working for a development with spiritual values.
    I had voted first time and i am happy with, i know and i would be happy if Atalji refused to take this bharat ratna which became like filmfare during UPA, Nehru, Indira, Rajiv, VV Giri, MGR who not got? but you find it sinister because modi has announced two deserving personalities one from his pary other from his constituency, dear people like you might be leftist or pessimist for me and all who voted for bjp is feeling honored.
    I don't know whats wrong with seculars, please write a different post on religion then i will put my idiotic logics, now all i want to say is please dont find it sinister and feel the proud being Indian.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Leftist, yes. When the pessimist says, "It can't get any worse," I say, "Cheer up, it sure can." So I am an optimist :) Cheers

      Delete
  2. The title of this post is so misleading. Bharath Ratna has not been politicised...
    You could have instead highlighted the fact that December 25 2014 has been declared as Good Governance day despite the same being Christmas! This will arouse suspicion among the minority of the country. Imagine Indians who are christians instead of going for "mass" and decorating christmas trees,going to school (especially Christian Missionary Schools) and asking students to submit essays on Good Governance and working on other themes related to it..... That would be unwarranted.....Announcing good initiatives on declared public holidays are a no no!!
    Bharath Ratna has not been politicised........ It is sacred ........... Atalji and Malavya ji deserve it coz they were true patriots and great leaders........

    Try to Change your title pls........... Nothing political about Bharath Ratna.....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Everything is grist to political mills. Mr Modi is no saint...

      Delete
  3. It seems that you haved edited your post... lol..... you inserted this later "making the Christmas day a working day indirectly are just two examples" . Else why would i comment on something which you have referred to alreadyin your post....

    Everything is grist to political mills : is not what i expect from you as a defence. My contention is this: the title of the post. Bharath ratna has nothing to do with conversion or christianity etc. Bharath Ratna is a recognition given by the state........ state is permanent and governments are not......
    In this case its the gov which decided to impose good governance day on december 25 and they are in the wrong...... instead of constructively critisizing the gov. you are barking up the wrong tree by dragging bharath ratna into this... atrocious.

    Bharath ratna is given away not to assert hindutva sir... it has no hidden motives. Atal s name was suggested to previous govs... they just ignored him. since cong had monopolized nehru - gandhi names to themselves they had ignored other leaders of freedom movement..... malavya is one among them...
    Bharath Ratna is given away for a reason... All political parties welcomed the decision and never told anything derogatory about the choices.. then why are you comparing this move to majoritarianism...... try to edit your posts with these things tooo mr:
    sadhvi rithambharas comments, godse statues, plastic surgeries, nuke, stem cell reasearches during vedic period etc... these are outright stupid things and try to overshadow secular fabric.... atal and mmm were true patriots,,, they fought for the country and it doesnt matter whethere they were hindus , christians or muslims....... they loved their country. dont forget atal never gave free hand to sangh during his regime...........

    Please post constructive criticims alone............And try to admit mistakes. it will never belittle you ...... it will only enhance your stature...........

    ReplyDelete
  4. Very well said sir. The same question has been going around in my head for quite some time now. And even though these two eminent men deserve the honour, it comes at a time that is unfortunate and misleading. But, th political rhetoric is clear. It is something to be feared and I don't think the people of India are going to be too happy about it.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl

Taliban and India

Illustration by Copilot Designer Two things happened on 14 Oct 2025. One: India rolled out the red carpet for an Afghan delegation led by the Taliban Administration’s Foreign Minister. Two: a young man was forced to wash the feet of a Brahmin and drink that water. This happened in Madhya Pradesh, not too far from where the Taliban leaders were being given regal reception in tune with India’s philosophy of Atithi Devo Bhava (Guest is God). Afghanistan’s Taliban and India’s RSS (which shaped Modi’s thinking) have much in common. The former seeks to build a state based on its interpretation of Islamic law aiming for a society governed by strict religious codes. The RSS promotes Hindutva, the idea of India as primarily a Hindu nation, where Hindu values form the cultural and political foundation. Both fuse religious identity with national identity, marginalising those who don’t fit their vision of the nation. The man who was made to wash a Brahmin’s feet and drink that water in Madh...

The Ugly Duckling

Source: Acting Company A. A. Milne’s one-act play, The Ugly Duckling , acquired a classical status because of the hearty humour used to present a profound theme. The King and the Queen are worried because their daughter Camilla is too ugly to get a suitor. In spite of all the devious strategies employed by the King and his Chancellor, the princess remained unmarried. Camilla was blessed with a unique beauty by her two godmothers but no one could see any beauty in her physical appearance. She has an exquisitely beautiful character. What use is character? The King asks. The play is an answer to that question. Character plays the most crucial role in our moral science books and traditional rhetoric, religious scriptures and homilies. When it comes to practical life, we look for other things such as wealth, social rank, physical looks, and so on. As the King says in this play, “If a girl is beautiful, it is easy to assume that she has, tucked away inside her, an equally beauti...

Helpless Gods

Illustration by Gemini Six decades ago, Kerala’s beloved poet Vayalar Ramavarma sang about gods that don’t open their eyes, don’t know joy or sorrow, but are mere clay idols. The movie that carried the song was a hit in Kerala in the late 1960s. I was only seven when the movie was released. The impact of the song, like many others composed by the same poet, sank into me a little later as I grew up. Our gods are quite useless; they are little more than narcissists who demand fresh and fragrant flowers only to fling them when they wither. Six decades after Kerala’s poet questioned the potency of gods, the Chief Justice of India had a shoe flung at him by a lawyer for the same thing: questioning the worth of gods. The lawyer was demanding the replacement of a damaged idol of god Vishnu and the Chief Justice wondered why gods couldn’t take care of themselves since they are omnipotent. The lawyer flung his shoe at the Chief Justice to prove his devotion to a god. From Vayalar of 196...

The Real Enemies of India

People in general are inclined to pass the blame on to others whatever the fault.  For example, we Indians love to blame the British for their alleged ‘divide-and-rule’ policy.  Did the British really divide India into Hindus and Muslims or did the Indians do it themselves?  Was there any unified entity called India in the first place before the British unified it? Having raised those questions, I’m going to commit a further sacrilege of quoting a British journalist-cum-historian.  In his magnum opus, India: a History , John Keay says that the “stock accusations of a wider Machiavellian intent to ‘divide and rule’ and to ‘stir up Hindu-Muslim animosity’” levelled against the British Raj made little sense when the freedom struggle was going on in India because there really was no unified India until the British unified it politically.  Communal divisions existed in India despite the political unification.  In fact, they existed even before the Briti...