Bharat Ratna & Manmohan Singh – Guest Author Prof. Satish Bhatnagar, Ph.D.

“Padma Vibhushan Award for Manmohan Singh.
The Modi Government should rise above politics and recommend to the President of India to award Padam Vibhushan to Manmohan Singh.
Manmohan Singh was an economist of world stature, reputed member of the Planning Commission of India, a successful Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, and he made a lot of history as Finance Minister in the cabinet of PM Narshihma Rao.
As a PM for 10 years (2004-2014), Manmohan Singh did let Sonia Gandhi and her cohorts run the shadow Government. But on a personal level, he remained honest. Yes, the PM is responsible for the corruption of his ministers – that has sullied his image.
The bottom line is that 91-year old Manmohan Singh does deserve Padma Vibhushan for his unparalleled and varied services to the nation. It may help the BJP politically in the upcoming elections in three months.”
Yesterday, I posted the above text on Facebook. However, out of curiosity, I decided to check the list of the past winners of the Padma Vibhushan since its inception in 1954. I was surprised to discover that Manmohan Singh was awarded Padma Vibhuhsna in 1987 – thirty-seven years ago! It happened when Rajiv Gandhi was the Prime Minister – during 1984-89.
Immediately, I removed that post from Facebook. However, no one had noted my error due to my overenthusiasm. After all, who cares to remember such a thing in the fast-digital world? Anyway, here is some trivia about the Padma Vibhushan award extracted from Wikipedia. It is worth sharing.
1. Since 1954, three hundred and thirty six (336) persons have been honored with Padma Vibhushan.
2. In a given year, this award can be conferred upon more than one person. The average comes out to five per year.
3. No awards were given during 1961, 1983 and 1984. Reasons unknown – a research problem for students of history and political science.
4. Padma Vibhushan is also awarded to foreigners – whether they are India born or not. It is the services rendered to India that counts.
5. It was noted that later on, a few Padma Vibhushan winners were also awarded Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian honor.
6. On the other hand, I am sure there must be some Padma Vibhushan laureates who also won Padma Shri and/or Padam Bhushan. But this information was not in Wikipedia- that means another problem for young history researchers.
7. All the awards were suspended for five years, 1993-1997 – no reason is given. Narsimha Rao was the PM during 1991-96. This is yet another research problem in Indian history!
8. It was clear that fewer women than men have been awarded Padma Vibhushan. This gap will narrow down as more women are entering in the workforce.
9. My conjecture is that Manmohan Singh would be awarded Bharat Ratna posthumously as it happened in the case of Narsimha Rao.
10. Rao was found guilty by a court in 2000, and given a ‘suspended’ sentence of three years. He died four years later in 2004. Twenty years later, the Modi Government showed magnanimity in awarding Bharat Ratna to Rao only last month, January 2024! Filters of history are beyond logic.
The Padma Awards, along with the Bharat Ratna, were suspended twice. The first time was in 1978, when Indian Prime Minister Morarji Desai’s government contended that the awards did not conform with Article 18 (Abolition of Titles) of the Indian Constitution, which states: “No title, not being a military or academic distinction, shall be conferred by the State.” The awards were reinstated in January 1980, when former prime minister Indira Gandhi returned to office. The awards were suspended again between 1992 and 1997, following litigation that questioned their constitutional validity, again citing Article 18, and were reinstated after the Supreme Court ruled that the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Awards are not titles as defined by Article 18 of the Constitution of India and that they are national in character.