0 Comment(s) *
* The moderation of comments is automated and not cleared manually by indianexpress.com.
As they face off, all parties would do well to remember that the democracy game is bigger than its players. This year’s Padma honours are not an unmixed bag. Covid vaccine makers who have helped the nation step up to an unprecedented health emergency and saved countless lives awkwardly rub shoulders with a former BJP chief minister who presided over an indelible stain on constitutional democracy in India, the demolition of Babri Masjid. But the day after, the BJP-led government’s list of 128 seems to be touching off ripples, most of all, for the award to Congress veteran Ghulam Nabi Azad and CPM senior Buddhadeb Bhattacharya — the former has accepted it even as his party appears divided on the matter, while the latter declined within hours of the announcement, in keeping with his party line on state awards. This is not the first time, of course, that a government’s awards list includes names from the Opposition. The Narasimha Rao government, for example, honoured Morarji Desai with Bharat Ratna and Atal Bihari Vajpayee with Padma Vibhushan. The Narendra Modi government itself has earlier honoured Pranab Mukherjee with Bharat Ratna and Sharad Pawar with Padma Vibhushan. And yet, such is the growing political polarisation today that the awards to Azad and Bhattacharya stand out. For the same reason, they are also welcome.
Of course, the Modi government’s reasons for this outreach 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 it often seems that the BJP, seven years in power, is contesting elections 24X7, locked in a fight to the finish with the Congress and the Left, the gesture is still heartening. Such is the BJP’s unrelenting aggression, even when it is winning, that even a bare acknowledgement of the political opponent seems a welcome departure from the hardening hostilities. During elections, but also in peace time in between polls, the party is perpetually othering its opposition and calling it names, with its government using the law and the agencies at its command to intimidate or target those who dissent and disagree. In this context, in their best version, the awards to Azad and Bhattacharya mark a moment.
As another crucial round of elections draws closer, the battle lines are sharpening once again. As they face off, all parties would do well to remember that the democracy game is bigger than its players, who must play with humility and abide by its rules and its courtesies. To expect the BJP to abandon its not-so-secret fantasy of an “Opposition-mukt” nation may itself be a fantasy. But reaching out across the aisle is what enriches a democracy and it will be regrettable if the NDA’s attempt to do so, in the Padma honours list, ends up being just yesterday’s headline.
This editorial first appeared in the print edition on January 27, 2022 under the title ‘Honourable rivals’.
- The Indian Express website has been rated GREEN for its credibility and trustworthiness by Newsguard, a global service that rates news sources for their journalistic standards.
© The Indian Express (P) Ltd