Let's keep the legal / constitutional / defined definitions aside.
For the common man, a Bharat Ratna is a Role Model.
And we don't award, this is Bharat Ratna for Music, or Bharat Ratna for Science. We award Bharat Ratna to the Citizen. In the sense, the person must have been exemplary in one field, but still should have been a model citizen.
And this applies to the awards from Padmashri onwards too.
This is why Sanjay Dutt or Salman Khan should and would never get it.
There was a huge ask for Saif Ali Khan to return his Padmashri when he manhandled someone in a restaurant, whatever be the context.
And hence there was the sagacity in those giving out the awards to give it out at the later part of such an achiever's life. Or even posthumously, which perhaps was taking things a bit far.
But the thought behind it always was to hold out to the world and future generations of what a Model Indian should be like.
Let's consider the tarnish to the award done by giving it to Sachin Tendulkar for example:
The very fact that the definition of comes in-scope of getting the award was changed to accommodate him, makes it all look fishy. But I'm not against the change in definition itself.
My point of view is only to ask if he was a model citizen apart from being the God of Batting.
Hmmm, well, he's only 43. There is a long life ahead of him. Too soon to say! And that's my only concern.
Consider this article (link), written before he got the award. It's not as if Sachin had been a model citizen prior to the award even. Why then had the highest national honour to be given by our most judicious then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, but for an opportunistic eye on getting some positive points for himself and his party after a scandal-led disastrous governance.
And now consider his current "performance" in the Rajya Sabha (News Link). Going by the twist in definition, of including "performance", wouldn't having given him a Bharat Ratna now look to have been done hastily?
And if a cricketer, why not the people from the Armed Forces, or the Police Forces, what about them?
Their "performance" and their sacrifices are what keeps the country standing.
Why are they confined to Gallantry awards. Indeed, they are our true Role Models.
For the common man, a Bharat Ratna is a Role Model.
And we don't award, this is Bharat Ratna for Music, or Bharat Ratna for Science. We award Bharat Ratna to the Citizen. In the sense, the person must have been exemplary in one field, but still should have been a model citizen.
And this applies to the awards from Padmashri onwards too.
This is why Sanjay Dutt or Salman Khan should and would never get it.
There was a huge ask for Saif Ali Khan to return his Padmashri when he manhandled someone in a restaurant, whatever be the context.
And hence there was the sagacity in those giving out the awards to give it out at the later part of such an achiever's life. Or even posthumously, which perhaps was taking things a bit far.
But the thought behind it always was to hold out to the world and future generations of what a Model Indian should be like.
Let's consider the tarnish to the award done by giving it to Sachin Tendulkar for example:
The very fact that the definition of comes in-scope of getting the award was changed to accommodate him, makes it all look fishy. But I'm not against the change in definition itself.
My point of view is only to ask if he was a model citizen apart from being the God of Batting.
Hmmm, well, he's only 43. There is a long life ahead of him. Too soon to say! And that's my only concern.
Consider this article (link), written before he got the award. It's not as if Sachin had been a model citizen prior to the award even. Why then had the highest national honour to be given by our most judicious then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, but for an opportunistic eye on getting some positive points for himself and his party after a scandal-led disastrous governance.
And now consider his current "performance" in the Rajya Sabha (News Link). Going by the twist in definition, of including "performance", wouldn't having given him a Bharat Ratna now look to have been done hastily?
And if a cricketer, why not the people from the Armed Forces, or the Police Forces, what about them?
Their "performance" and their sacrifices are what keeps the country standing.
Why are they confined to Gallantry awards. Indeed, they are our true Role Models.
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