The former West Bengal chief minister and CPM leader Buddhadeb Bhattacharya refused to accept the Padma awards as announced by the Narendra Modi government on the eve of Republic Day.
“I know nothing about this award. No one has told me anything about it. If they have decided to offer Padma Bhushan to me, I refuse to accept it,” 77-year-old ailing Bhattacharya said in the press statement.
However, it is an established procedure that before the announcement of the name for such civilian honours, the government seeks the consent of the prospective awardees. If anyone conveys any objection or shows unwillingness, he or she is not named.
“In accordance with the normal practice, willingness of the person proposed to be conferred Padma Awards is informally ascertained (to the extent possible) before the announcement of the Award,” the Government had told Rajya Sabha in 2015 answering to a question. The same procedure must have been followed in this case.
But, the rejection of the honour by Bhattacharya evoked a mixed response and the leftists claimed that the rejection by former CM shows the high moral ground of the left against the right-wing.
However, the fact seems to be otherwise. The home ministry had made a call to Buddhadeb’s residence where his wife Meera Bhattacharya picked the phone. Meera Bhattacharya was told by the ministry that the government intended to name Buddhadeb Bhattacharya for the Padma Bhushan. There was a full day between the call and the announcement but no one from Bhattacharya’s family got back to the home ministry about his unwillingness to accept the award.
Now the family claims that the phone was disconnected before they could convey the concerned official of the ministry that Bhattacharya would not accept the honour. The family also claimed that since the call was made on the landline, hence, they had no way to call back.
Bhattacharya turned down the honour after the announcement. Soon after the announcement, the CPM top leadership in New Delhi contacted Bhattacharya’s family and persuaded to refuse it since the party as per the tradition doesn’t accept such honours. Party’s West Bengal state secretary Suryakanta Mishra did discuss the award with Bhattacharya’s family.
In the 1990s, CPM leader and the first Chief Minister of Kerala E M S Namboodiripad had turned down the then P V Narasimha Rao’s offer to award him Padma Vibhushan.
As far as conferring such civilian awards, the Narendra Modi government has made a marked departure and set a new tradition of honouring people cutting across the ideology and party line. In 2017, the government had conferred Padma Vibhushan on NCP chief Sharad Pawar. In 2019, it awarded Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian honour to former President and lifelong Congressman, Pranab Mukherjee. Even this time, the Congress veteran Ghulam Nabi Azad was awarded the Padma Bhushan.
Another individual to reject the Padma award this year is singer Sandhya Mukherjee. 90 year old singer refused to accept the Padma Shri because she felt it was demeaning for a singer of her stature. She had a career spanning 8 decades and Padma Shri is more fitting for a junior artist, not someone like Mukherjee, who has been earlier awarded Banga Bibhushan award.