Sunday, January 06, 2008

Bharat Ratnas

This article has been written in response to a blog written on CNN-IBN(www.ibnlive.com), Who is a Ratna? Are cricketers Bharat Ratnas? by DP Satish and the comments that have been posted by the readers in general. I am posting the url to the article:-
First and foremost we must honour the people that have been already conferred with this award rather than casting aspersions on their contribution to the people at large and the nation. If my memory doesn't fail me Dr Zakir Hussain was an academician par excellence, he was an educationist who gave a new direction to Aligarh Muslim University when it was going through a turbulent phase of partition. He even earned admiration from his arch political rival, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, for his untiring efforts in keeping the University afloat during the most testing times. I believe and do so very strongly that Dr Zakir Hussain very much deserves this award like the others who have been conferred with it.

Now the million dollar question is 'Who next?' Our problem lies in the fact that when we as a country fail to come up with a true jewel, the buck either stops at Film Stars or at Sportsmen. Is it really true that this country is faced with the shortage of real Ratnas and we have to create one so that this award may be conferred on them? Do any of the film stars or sportsmen from any part of the country deserve to stand in the list that has the name of legends, luminaries like Dr Radhakrishnan, Dr Rajendra Prasad, Rajaji, CV Raman, Jawahar Lal Nehru, GB Pant, Dr Kalam and many other stalwarts? And if the answer is Yes, then by all means we need to go ahead and confer the same on the best of the lot. And if the answer is No, then we need to think about the same.

Let me throw two names from two different fields altogether and I will try to justify why. Given a choice to nominate a sportsman for this award I can't think of anybody but Pullela Gopichand. To me he is the real champion, we all know his exploits on the badminton court but of the court too he is a Ratna. In the modern day, only a gem can refuse a lucrative endorsement deal from one of the Cola companies. He refused the endorsement offer and instead wanted to endorse Coconut water. How many sportsmen in India would do that? I don’t think there are many, unless you are somebody like Pullela Gopichand. The other name that comes to my mind is somebody of the caliber of Harivansh Rai Bacchan or may be the writer duo of Dominique Laiperre and Larry Collins. They not only have written beautiful books but at the same time have done some substantial work for the less privileged and less fortunate people in Calcutta and the victims of Bhopal Gas Tragedy. Harishvansh Rai Bacchan’s contribution to Hindi language on the whole and his writings for Freedom Fighters during the Freedom Struggle needs no introduction.

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