The Politics of Padma Awards: Outreach to the Opposition

Asia News Agency

The Politics of Padma Awards: Outreach to the Opposition

As is the practice, ‘Padma’ awards are conferred every year to honour civilians in their respective fields. This year there are 128 awardees. The surprise was the involution of Congress veteran Ghulam Nabi Azad and former CPM chief minister of

West Bengal  Buddhadeb Bhattacharya. Azad has accepted the award even as the Congress appears divided on the matter, while Bhattacharya has declined in keeping with his party line on state awards.  It must however, be noted that in the past government’s awards list has included names from the Opposition.

The Modi government’s reasons for this outreach, in the view of Indian Express  “may be more than a little tactical. In honouring Azad, for instance, the ruling party at the Centre may be acknowledging not just the J&K leader’s undoubted political eminence but also his growing and visible estrangement from his own party — the PM’s emotional tribute to Azad when he retired from the Rajya Sabha last year may have been a prelude. By seeking to award Bhattacharya, it may also be showing down the TMC. Or, rubbing it in to the CPM that the Communist to be applauded is the one who tried to chart his own course and was sent out into the cold.” And yet, in a political climate where the BJP is “locked in a fight to the finish with the Congress and the Left, the gesture is still heartening.”


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