Janata Dal (Secular) leader Danish Ali suspected politics behind former President Pranab Mukherjee and late social activist Nanaji Deshmukh. Speaking on the issue, he said that former Chief Minister of Odisha Biju Patnaik, late social reformer Kanshi Ram who worked for the upliftment of Bahujans and Dr Shivakumara Swamy, Lingayat seer deserves the award more than Mukherjee and Deshmukh. “If you wanted to give Bharat Ratna, you could have conferred it to Dr. Shivakumara Swamy, who did thousand times more social work than Nanaji Deshmukh. Just because it does not match your ideology, you ignored him. It's very unfortunate. Biju Patnaik ji and Kanshi Ram ji should have been conferred Bharat Ratna before Pranab Mukherjee. He has been awarded just because he went to RSS HQs.