The red and saffron brigades are engaged in yet another verbal duel, this time on the right candidate for the country’s highest civilian honour— Bharat Ratna.
While expressing serious reservation on the BJP’s proposal of giving the honour to former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, a senior CPM leader on Friday said the saffron brigade had been lobbying in for the senior BJP leader to scuttle the claim of party patriarch Jyoti Basu.
“The name of Mr Basu came up first and the BJP proposed the name of Mr Vajpayee to challenge it,” CPM MP Mohammad Salim told Deccan Herald.
He, however, denied that Mr Basu’s name had been discussed at party level to be formally proposed to the government for the honour.
But another senior party leader M K Pandhe said as a matter of policy the CPM did not accept any award given by the government. “Till date Left leaders and even Left-leaning intellectuals do not accept awards from the government. Lakshmi Sehgal even refused to accept a Padma award and the freedom fighter’s pension,” he said.
However, Mohd Salim averred that Bharat Ratna was not a government award but an honour by the state and thus there should be no party restriction on Mr Basu accepting it.
In Kolkata, CPM politburo member Biman Bose said on Friday: “I don’t know if Basu fulfils the parameters; if he does, Basu may be offered the Ratna.”
Attacks BJP
Criticising senior BJP leader L K Advani for writing to the Prime Minister and proposing to honour former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee with the Bharat Ratna, Bose alleged that the BJP was “playing politics” with the top award. “I am not aware of the parameters under which Bharat Ratna is awarded or whether Mr Vajpayee fulfils those criteria. But it is definite that they are playing politics with it,” Bose claimed.
However, BJP leaders have alleged that the plea for Bharat Ratna award to Basu was CPM’s ploy to scuttle the claims of Vajpayee for the top honour.