The most honourable and prestigious civilian awards in India given to the eminent personalities from different sects of the society as recognition to their outstanding contribution in their respective fields is The Padma Awards. The award is given in the fields like Arts, Education, Industry, Literature, Science, Sports, Social Service and Public Life. India has four levels of hierarchical awards for civilians with distinguished contributions to society,Bharat Ratna, Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Sri.
The way the awardees are short-listed is :-
A) Recommendations from state governments, Union Territory administrations, central ministries, individuals, organizations, even self-recommendations, are placed before the Awards Committee for consideration.
B) The recommendations of the Awards Committee, which comprises eminent personalities from different fields, are submitted to the home minister and then to the President’s office for approval.
C) After the President’s office approves the lists, it travels to the prime minister’s office for final scrutiny before they are announced on the eve of Republic Day.
The Republic Day has been the occasion for the country to honour those of its citizens whom it considers to have made a significant contribution to national life. Instituted in January 1954, the Padma awards, as they are collectively known, have become the pre-eminent marker of national recognition in India. When they were first instituted, there were only 18 Padma Shree awardees, 23 Padma Bhushan awardees and 6 Padma Vibhushan awardees. But over the years these numbers have swelled along with the scope and spread of those the Government of the day wants to honour. In 2010, 81 Padma Shree, 43 Padma Bhushan and 6 Padma Vibhushan awards have been announced. Over these 56 years, a total of 2,333 Padma Shree awards, 1,111 Padma Bhushan awards and 264 Padma Vibhushan awards have been given out. 41 Bharat Ratna awards also have been conferred too.
There has been a very fundamental issue with these awards. What do they actually honour? The excellence in a specific area of human endeavor and for the contribution to nation ? If so, alas! Government of the day is not the authority competent to judge this. How does a disparate committee of bureaucrats, technocrats, artists and politicians judge the relative brilliance of one nominee over the other? How does it judge which of these, Padma Shree, Padma Bhushan or Padma Vibhushan be awarded?
The greatest concern is that these awards are now seriously compromised in the public perception with favoritism, politicization and incompetence. There is lack of transparency about the criteria employed to select one name over the other and a feeling that these awards are increasingly becoming one among a range of political sops and inducements for the party in power to dole out. Awards should not only acknowledge success, but they should pave the way to recognise many other qualities like ability, struggle, effort and above all, excellence.
That is where National Awards must be recognized and the importance that they are chosen carefully, transparently and wisely letting not to be subverted to disgrace the achievements of all those remarkable men and women who have received them over the years. India stands very poor in promoting traditional arts and crafts. We must drill down, identify the protectors of these, who sacrifice their life to protect these treasures for our nation, award them with Padma shri and inspire other people too to promote them.
Awards, particularly, those accorded by the Government, must reflect our national character. It is therefore important and essential that there is total transparency in the way the awardees are selected. We can’t have only ministers and people in the Government recommending candidates for their vested interest. Awards such as Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan must include eminent achievers from all walks of life but they must also include people of immaculate credentials. It is not easy to check everyone’s background but it’s shocking to know that from the whole names recommended every year for these awards, the shortlist is decided by a Government-appointed committee within less than an hour (Ultra Super Computers). There has to be greater clarity about such matters if we are to retain the prestige, dignity and honour of our National Awards and ensure that crooks, cheats and carpetbaggers do not seize our last citadel of excellence and outstanding achievement
There are numerous cases in which known terrorists, criminals, thieves, dacoits and those involved in other heinous crimes involving moral turpitude have been acquitted honourably by courts because the "prosecution failed to prove the charges against them". In the eyes of law, they may be innocent individuals, but in the eyes of the people and those who know them, they are not as the government may try to project them.
It is interesting to recall that the Supreme Court of India had constituted a committee headed by former President of India K. R. Narayanan who had made recommendations to make the process of grant of Padma awards "more transparent and accountable". On the contrary, the present awards smack of political favours.
The Narayanan Committee had made the following main recommendations which the government has ignored:
1)The (Padma) awards committee should be constituted for a term of two years.
2)Maximum number of Padma awards, including all three categories, should be 60.
3)No awards should be given except through the recommendations of the awards committee.
4)Applications for the awards should reach the Ministry of Home Affairs by October 1.
5)Verification of awardees by the investigating agencies about their character and antecedents.
6)Criteria should not be merely excellence, but "excellence plus", a lifetime achievement.
If attempts are not made to come out clean on the process of Padma awards, no wonder tomorrow some awardees may opt not to stand among those with careers "bordering on criminality".
But one can’t understand what has gone wrong with the common sense of our jury members, either they are all sold out or they have lost all their brains. Certainly one thing is for sure, all this has made the award ceremonies very popular and a sought after event every year, because anybody and everybody can expect their names in the covetous list.
Winners are happy, losers are expectedly grim, overlooked but truly deserving people are disheartened but surprisingly the common man is shocked, appalled and puzzled. Yes it’s the time of award ceremonies globally. And as the numbers of award ceremonies across various fields are increasing exponentially every year, it seems that the authenticities of the most prestigious awards are getting dwindled year by year. Or for that matter the pride, the fame and the sense of accomplishment which people used to attach with the awards and recognitions have lost all its shine.
It is a well known fact that Padma Sri awards are given to people with either connections or collections every year. Ram Ram Jayaram!!!!!!!!!!! Do you deserve? Reveal the shortcut for others.
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