BJP to get its way? Vajpayee may get Bharat Ratna award as he turns 90

The BJP may have been left seething the last time when the UPA government chose to give Bharat Ratnas to scientist CNR Rao and cricketer-turned-MP Sachin Tendulkar, but it may finally get its way and give the nation’s highest civilian award to the first Prime Minister from its party, Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Rumours are rife over the former Prime Minister being given the award after many MPs from the BJP and its allies took turns to say how much he deserved the award, reports the Hindustan Times .

While the government has refused to comment on the issue, party MP Murli Manohar Joshi and Shiv Sena MP Anant Geete were quoted as saying that it was the right time to present the award to the veteran politician. Rumour has it that the award will be announced on Vajpayee’s 90th birthday on 25 December.

The Modi government has already declared that the day would be observed as ‘good governance day’ as a mark of respect for the former Prime Minister.

Speculation over the BJP’s first prime minister getting the highest civilian award has been on since August this year  when his name came up along with freedom fighter Subhash Chandra Bose as being in the running for the Bharat Ratna.

The BJP has been demanding that Vajpayee get the award since last year and the then leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha and  now minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad, was quoted as saying that if the BJP government came to power they would award the Bharat Ratna to Vajpayee.

Vajpayee, one of the co-founders of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, also was instrumental in the creation of the BJP in 1980. He had served as External Affairs Minister during the Morarji Desai government and after being elected as Prime Minister in 1999 became the first non-Congress leader to complete a full term in office.

Even occasional critics like columnist Vinod Mehta have argued that it was important to give the former Prime Minister the award since “when it comes to national icons, the BJP’s cupboard is utterly bare.”

“It is in the country’s interest they should have at least one,” he noted in a column .

It’s not like previous prime ministers haven’t got the Bharat Ratna. Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Morarji Desai, and Gulzarilal Nanda are the six former prime ministers who have received the award in the past, and Vajpayee would be the seventh to receive it.

However, while he may be unable to comment on it now due to ill health, Vajpayee was pretty skeptical of the move to give him the award when it was suggested to him  during his term as Prime Minister.

“Kya hum apne aap ko hi Bharat Ratna denge? (Will I give myself the Bharat Ratna)” he reportedly commented, his former media Ashok Tandon is quoted as saying in this DNA report .