BHARAT RATNA - THE LATEST PASSTIME OF MEDIOCRE INDIA

Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian award of India has been bestowed upon 41 people, as on date, some of them richly deserving and the rest with highly questionable and debatable credentials.

Unfortunately, in India, the eligibility norms are very indistinct for awarding the highest Civilian award. This has resulted in some politicians being awarded by the ruling parties to consolidate their vote banks or to calm a section of citizen’s passion and frenzy. Unfortunately, some of the highly deserving names like Dr. Varghese Kurien, Dr. Homi Jahangir Bhabha and Ratan Tata, who were instrumental in making colossal difference to the lives of ordinary Indian citizens in their respective fields, were never considered. Instead, the highest honor is bestowed on some musicians in the recent past.

The highest military award or the highest civilian award shall be bestowed on those individuals whose personal sacrifices or relenting works have directly or indirectly either benefits India as a country or are instrumental in uplifting the living standards of its ordinary citizens. Moreover, it is agonizing to see a section of citizen’s frenzy and demand to award the highest civilian award to a professional cricketer, by bye-passing several richly deserving individuals.

It is high time for every citizen of India, including politicians to ponder over upholding the deserved stature of the highest national award by not using it as an instrument for achieving political gains and whipping regional, linguistic and sectional passions.

RATAN TATA – A GREAT HUMAN BEING

26/11 incident in Mumbai might have been a thing of the past. However, the deeds and sacrifices of the Maharashtra police, National Security Gaurds, Mumbaikars and other Indians who helped nation recover from the crisis are remembered and will be remembered for ever.
Politicians and business men are generally looked down upon by the common man as a symbol of exploitation during crisis. There is no denial to this argument as the common man was exploited in the past and is still exploited by some politicians, business houses and middle men during the making of a crisis or during crisis. Let us pose a few questions to ourselves:
 How did sugar prices go up so fast this financial year despite relaxation of the imports?
 Is the agricultural output so many folds down during this Kharif season for the essential commodity prices to double and triple?
 How can a politician spend crores and crores of black money during elections?
However, there is one kind human being, Mr. Ratan Tata who stands out tall from the business community. He belongs to the rare breed of business men with a human face akin to Bill Gates and Warren Buffet. All of us must have heard of Mr. Ratan Tata’s philanthropic activities and generosity to the people working for his group companies and the common man in the vicinity of his establishments, at some point or the other. Unfortunately, Singur incident saw him being exploited by politicians for their petty interests. In spite of such unsavoury incidents, he remains committed to charitable and philanthropic activities in West Bengal.
However, Mr. Ratan Tata, despite being on the receiving end during the 26/11 crisis both financially and emotionally (It’s a common knowledge that he was emotionally attached to the heritage building housing the Taj Hotel), evolved in to a super human being aftermath of the crisis, by his charitable deeds and reaching out personally to the victims and their families. His reactions to the crisis are well documented by the netizens and can be retrieved from the hyperlink below.
https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0ByOMpjy3KhxkOTIyYjEwZTUtYWU1MS00YWM1LTg0ZmQtYjFmN2VkM2QxY2Vk&hl=en
I would personally like to see him being bestowed upon with BHARAT RATNA by the Indian government.

Appended on 26.06.2010.

I am elated to see Mr. Ratan Tata being recognised and honoured by Cambridge University, the ancient seat of learning. The news item and his humble reaction is reproduced below:

LONDON: India's leading industrialist Ratan Tata, Chairman of the Tata Group, has been conferred the honorary degree of Doctor of Law BY Cambridge University for his role in producing the world's cheapest car Nano. The degree was conferred by Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, who is also the chancellor of the Cambridge University.

In his acceptance speech, India's leading industrialist Ratan Tata, said: "We have always tried to help people in need. One of the tenets of the Tata family has been to acquire wealth to distribute it. So 65 per cent of dividends of our holding company go to charitable trusts which distribute that, so we have been doing it for a hundred years".