K.V. Seetharamaiah
After the highest civilian award Bharat Ratna was conferred on Karpoori Thakur and Lal Krishna Advani, now Choudhary Charan Singh, P.V. Narasihma Rao and M.S. Swaminathan have been chosen for the award. Among the five receipients, Advani is lucky that he got the award in his life time at the ripe age of 96 years. All others have been conferred posthumously. NDA government has to be applauded for conferring the highest civilian award without taking into consideration party affiliations. Barring Advani, all others are from other political parties with the exception of Swaminathan who is agricultural scientist. Narasihama Rao’s family has reportedly expressed gratitude to Prime Minister Modi for bestowing Bharat Ratna to him. It is not unusual for the critics, especially political rivals, to see negative in everything. Mamata Banerjee was quick to say that Bharat Ratna is ‘non-serious’. There is also talk of Bharat Ratna given with an eye on Lok Sabha election. The critics must not fail to understand that the Bharat Ratna given before the election will not be taken away after the election is over like freebies that can be given before the election and then cancelled after the election if the financial position does not permit. AICC President Mallikarjuna Kharge said “the role of the opposition is to criticize”. There is nothing wrong to call a spade a spade. What must be criticized must be criticized. There should be no criticism for the sake of criticism. But it is the wont of Congress to criticize everything. If the critics are unable to appreciate the good things done, at least they can show the gesture by being silent at the good works done. If it is assumed that the role of opposition parties is only to criticize, then the opposition parties may not take it kindly even when someone from the ruling party says ‘opposition is doing well’. Good remarks at the opposition parties may also meet with criticism. After quitting Congress and joining Shiv Sena, Milind Deora, referring to Congress, has rightly said “Tomorrow, if he says Congress is a very good party, they will oppose it”. Now Congress is in a very embarrassing position at the Bharat Ratna given to Narasihma Rao. Because when Narasihma Rao died in 2004, his body was not even allowed inside the AICC Head Quarters in Delhi defying a customary practice. The reason was obvious. He was projected as villain for being ‘passive’ at the time of demolition of Babri Masjid. Congress party and its friendly parties saw ‘tacit support’ from Narasihma Rao for demolition of the Masjid in Ayodhya. Yet Sonia Gandhi found it difficult to be silent at the Bharat Ratna given to Narasihma Rao. She ‘welcomed’ the honour given to him posthumously. Charan Singh was undoubtedly the champion of the farmers cause. He was nursing ambition to become Chief Minister which he had openly admitted. He was disappointed at the choice of Morarji Desai as Prime Minister by Jayaprakash Narayan in 1977. He gave slip to Desai and became Prime Minister with the support of Indira Gandhi on July 28, 1979 but resigned after 23 days on August 20, 1979. It was on this day Indira Gandhi pulled the plug. He fell into the well-laid trap of Indira Gandhi. With Charan Singh forming his own outfit, Janata Party broke up. Charan Singh is the only Prime Minister who could not face the Parliament. He was beguiled by Indira Gandhi. If he had not defected from the Janata Party and if no dual membership issue of Jana Sanghis had been raised, the Janata Party would have stood like a solid rock without need for Vajpayee to float Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The disintegration of Janata Party is the best example for the worst circumstances created by the conglomeration of too many parties with different ideologies. If Janata Party could not survive with too many parties coming under one umbrella, it is not difficult to predict the fate of I.N.D.I.A. bloc in which AAP and TMC are singing different tunes with Congress on seat-sharing issue. JDU came out and RLD is about to come out from I.N.D.I.A. The only agenda to unite against BJP is very fragile in nature to keep themselves together. Positive approach from I.N.D.I.A. is lacking. Unfortunately, the conferment of Bharat Ratna is being politicized by the I.N.D.I.A. team. Negative approach and negative campaign do not yield fruitful results for any party or parties. The earlier I.N.D.I.A. team realizes it, better it would be.