Padma Awards: Modi government's embrace of meritocracy and unsung heroes

The Modi government’s recently announced list of Padma awards once again reinforces that Padma awards are now about honouring talent, meritocracy, hard-work, diversity, perseverance, social work, unique skills and achievements of ordinary men and women and not just celebrities. There is nothing wrong in celebrating celebrities but Padma awards today are symbolic of something more than just glamour and razzmatazz. Celebrating the unsung who toil day and night and have deeply influenced the larger community but have never got their due, is what Padma awards under the Modi government have come to symbolise. Under the earlier Congress regime, most of the awardees were pliable who’s who from various walks of life and were willing to sing paeans about the ruling dispensation then. But under Prime Minister Modi, unsung heroes have stolen the match and rightfully so. In a remarkable recognition of his outstanding contributions to the technology industry, Young Liu, the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Foxconn, the Taiwanese multinational electronics contract manufacturer, has been bestowed with the prestigious Padma Bhushan award this year. Young Liu, a seasoned entrepreneur and innovator, boasts an impressive career spanning over four decades. His entrepreneurial journey began in 1988 when he founded Young Micro Systems, a motherboard company. Foxconn, headquartered in Taiwan, stands as the world’s largest contract manufacturer, responsible for assembling approximately 70 per cent of iPhones. The company has strategically diversified its production away from China in response to disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and escalating geopolitical tensions. Over the past year, Foxconn has made significant investments in expanding its footprint in India under the Modi government as part of a broader strategy to reduce dependence on Chinese manufacturing. Padma awards, which were instituted in the year 1954, are announced every year on the occasion of Republic Day except for brief interruption(s) during the years 1978 and 1979 and 1993 to 1997. All persons without distinction of race, occupation, position or sex are eligible for these awards. However, Government servants including those working with PSUs, except doctors and scientists, are not eligible for these awards. The awards seek to recognise works of distinction and are given for distinguished and exceptional achievements/service in all fields of activities/disciplines. They are presented in three categories: Padma Vibhushan (for exceptional and distinguished service), Padma Bhushan (distinguished service of higher order), and Padma Shri (distinguished service). These awards aim to acknowledge outstanding achievements across various fields that involve an element of public service. The Padma awards are granted based on recommendations put forth by the Padma Awards Committee, formed annually by no less than the prime minister himself. This committee, led by the Cabinet Secretary, consists of key officials such as the Home Secretary, Secretary to the President, and four to six distinguished individuals. The nomination process is open to the public. Even self-nomination can be made. Following the committee’s recommendations, the final approvals are sought from the Prime Minister and the President of India. In the previous year, the government announced a total of 106 Padma awards, with this year’s tally being 132. Padma Shri, like all past years, maintains the Narendra Modi government’s tradition of celebrating unsung heroes from remote parts of the country. From tribal reformers and environmentalists working silently for poor tribals or preserving the forests around them, to women of rural India who broke the glass ceiling, to medical practitioners who overcame personal tragedy to heal other victims, to Bhadu folk singer from Birbhum Ratan Kahar who struck fame in his eighties after his composition ‘Boro Loker Biti Lo’ went viral on social media, Padma Shri this year celebrates the ordinary folk whose work speaks louder than their humble voice. Somanna, a former bonded labourer from Mysuru in Karnataka who dedicated his life for tribal welfare and has been working for the betterment of Jenu Kuruba, a honey-collecting tribe, for over four decades, was picked for Padma Shri. He has assisted in acquiring title deeds to ensure the legal recognition and protection of more than 500 tribal communities residing in forest areas. A gutsy lady who sustained 50 per cent burns at the tender age of 8 but survived to study medicine and become a reconstructive plastic surgeon to heal burn victims, has been named for Padma. She underwent more than 14 surgeries as a child at Christian Medical College Vellore and went on to become a surgeon and head of the department in the same hospital. ‘Agni Rakshak’ Prema Dhanraj runs an NGO that has provided free surgery to over 26,500 burn victims and has also established Ethiopia’s 1st burns unit, apart from educating doctors across Africa and Europe. India’s first female elephant mahout Parbati Baruah, who learnt the skill from her father and has saved and shaped the lives of many rogue tuskers in Assam, has also been honoured. A tribal welfare leader belonging to a particularly vulnerable tribal group (PVTG) from Jashpur in Chhattisgarh, Jageshwar Yadav, was awarded Padma Shri this year for helping to eradicate illiteracy and tackle vaccine hesitancy during the pandemic. Divyang and social worker from Sirsa, Haryana Gurvinder Singh, despite being paralysed waist down after being hit by a truck and since bound to a wheelchair, has nurtured children’s dreams through his child care institute and provided ambulance service to over 6,000 accident victims and pregnant ladies. Among the artists honoured this year are folk painter Ashok Kumar Biswas from Bihar who revived Maurya-era Tikuli art over the last five decades; and folk painters Shanti Devi Paswan and Shivan Paswan from Dusadh community and overcame caste stigma to exhibit their Godna Madhubani paintings in US, Japan, Hong Kong and even the recent G20 summit. Kathakali exponent Balakrishnan Sadanam Puthiya Veetil, 105-year-old Krishna Leela singer from Odisha’s Ganjam district and Burra Veena player from Damaragidda village in Narayanpet Dasari Kondappa have also been named for Padma Shri. The other awardees include sculptor Sanatan Rudra Pal from West Bengal who has been crafting Sabeki Durga idols for over five decades and has got recognition from UNESCO. A bamboo craftsman from Sikkim, Jordan Lepcha was also named for the fourth highest civilian award. Potter from Ukhrul Machichan Sasa figures on the list along with eminent Chindu Yakshaganam theatre artist from Jangaon, Telangana, Gaddam Sammaiah, who incidentally was once an agricultural labourer. Padma Shri list includes Chakma loinloom shawl weaver Smriti Rekha Chakma and Mach theatre artist from Madhya Pradesh Omprakash Sharma. Theyyam folk dance Narayanan E P from Kerala who started off as a driver but has performed the Theyyam folk ritual in 100 ritual locations, has also been recognised with Padma Shri. Uday Vishwanath Deshpande from Maharashtra who is credited for bringing the Mallakhamb sport on global map, is another Padma Shri awardee. His rule-book was recognized by the Indian Olympic Association. Yazdi Maneksha Italia, a doctor from Gujarat who dedicated his life to fight sickle cell anaemia amongst tribals of Gujarat is yet another Padma Shri awardee. Tribal environmentalists rewarded this year include Jharkhand’s Chami Murmu who spearheaded afforestation efforts by planting over 30 lakh with 3,000 women. Dukhi Manjhi from Purulia, who could not complete his education due to financial constraints but went on to plant 5,000 trees on barren land, has also been honoured. Nariyal Amma K Chellammal, a Class 6 dropout, is on the Padma Shri list for her work as an organic farmer in South Andaman. Others honoured include rice farmer from Kasaragod, Kerala, Sathyanaryana Beleri who has preserved over 650 traditional rice varieties and social worker from Aizawl Sangthankima who has been providing rehabilitation services and shelter to orphans, divyangan, drug addicts and alcoholics. Herbal medicine practitioners on the Padma Shri list include Hemchand Manji from Narayanpur in Chhattisgarh who has provided affordable healthcare to villagers for over five decades and has great knowledge of herbs found in the forests of Abujmarh. He has braved repeated threats from Naxalites to serve the people. East Siang-based herbal medicine expert Yanung Jamoh Lego has provided medical care to over 10,000 patients and educated 1 lakh individuals on medicinal herbs. Jankilal, a Behrupiya artist from Bhilwara, Rajasthan, who has been promoting the fading art form for over six decades with limited finances and institutional support, and Brass Marori craftsperson from UP Babu Ram Yadav have been named for Padma Shri this year. Purulia style dance exponent and Chhau mask maker Nepal Chandra Sutradhaar has been awarded posthumously. Of late, several unsung heroes have been conferred with the Padma awards. Some of them were not even aware that these awards exist! Here, we look at some awardees in the past years under the Modi government,who have been doing social work for decades, expecting nothing in return. Under Congress regimes these unsung heroes were cast away into oblivion but under Prime Minister Modi’s government,these unknown men and women have been rewarded,making an example of their grit, merit, selflessness,dedication and talent. It all started with a foreign tourist couple asking Harekala Hajabba of Mangalore, the price of the oranges he was selling in English. As he could not understand them, he felt embarrassed at his lack of education. This made him decide to build a school so nobody faced such embarrassment. It took a few years for him to save the money from his meagre income, but he finally did build a school at his village Newpadpu, around 40 kilometres south of Mangalore. Hundreds of children receive free education in Hajabba’s school. He was awarded the Padma Shri for his efforts. Let no one forget that it is only thanks to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ability to not only respect the deserving but equally, his empathy for those who have the talent but not the resources, which have made Padma award the peoples’ s awards. Similarly, Social activist Chhultim Chhonjor received the Padma Shri, for single-handedly constructing a 38-km stretch of road. As travel between his remote village Ramjak and other places in Ladakh, with better medical and facilities had become very difficult because of the terrain, Chhonjor decided to do something about it. He bought a heavy construction vehicle to build the road with the money he had saved. Prakash Kaur was abandoned by her parents in Jalandhar soon after being born and was raised in a Nari Niketan. She was just 24 when she started the ‘Unique Home’ from a single room in Jalandhar. Today, she takes care of hundreds of abandoned girls who are given housing, food and care. Many girls raised by Prakash Kaur have gone on to do well in life. Mohammed Shareef is a bicycle mechanic by profession, but he is well-known for performing the last rites of thousands of unclaimed dead bodies for more than 25 years. ‘Shareef Chacha’, as he is called in Ayodhya, is said to have performed last rites on over 25,000 unclaimed bodies, according to the religious customs of the dead person. According to Shareef, he took to social service in 1992 after a horrific incident in which his son Raees was murdered during communal tensions. Shareef is over 80 and he is a Padma Shri awardee. Born in Peshawar in Pakistan, Jagdish Lal Ahuja, crossed over to India after Partition in 1947. He was just 12 years old at that time. But he built his life and did well in business. On his son’s eighth birthday, he organised a ‘langar,’ or free kitchen for street children. That changed his life. He saw the joy on the children’s faces and he decided to organise a langar every day. And he has been doing it for decades. Called the ‘Langar Baba’ in Chandigarh, he has been awarded the Padma Shri. Eighty-four-year-old Tulsi Gowda used to work with Karnataka forest department’s nursery in Honnalli village in the state’s Uttar Kannada district and has planted hundreds of thousands of trees, including many that her tribal community Halakki Vokkalu considered important.This barefoot ecologist continues to work even after retirement from the department. Tulsi has helped to regenerate many trees that were on the verge of extinction. She is called the “encyclopaedia of forest” because of her intimate knowledge of the trees and her community calls her “vruksha devata” (the goddess of trees). The country conferred Padma Shri for her tireless efforts. A native of Sikar district in Rajasthan, Sundaram Verma has been on a unique mission to grow forests in the most dry, arid regions of the state and inspiring others to do the same. He has been using the ‘dryland agroforestry’ method that requires only one litre of water during its growing phase.A science graduate, he spurned job offers to fine-tune his growing techniques in his farmland and inspire other farmers to do the same. Verma has planted more than 50,000 trees so far and his method of growing trees has been adapted by many around the country. He was awarded the Padma Shri for his work. \ He is in his eighties, but Dr Sushovan Banerjee continues to attend patients and he has been charging the same amount for decades—one rupee. Banerjee is better known as Ek Takar Daktar’ (One Rupee Doctor) in Bolpur, West Bengal. According to some estimates, he has treated more than 2 million patients in almost six decades. Banerjee, the Padma Shri awardee for 2020, has found his way into the Guinness World Records to treat the maximum number of patients in his lifetime. Krishnammal and her husband Sankaralingam Jagannathan founded Land for Tillers’ Freedom (LAFTI) in 1981. The NGO has been working with the marginalised and uplifting their lives by buying them land or through redistribution. According to some estimates, the couple’s efforts resulted in a redistribution of over 32,000 acres to landless Dalits in the state of Bihar alone. LAFTI now constructs houses, distributes domestic animals and provides education and skills training. Although her husband died in 2013, Krishnammal, who has been awarded the Padma Bhushan, continues to work among the marginalised. The state of Assam was compelled to pass a law called Witch Hunting (Prohibition, Protection and Prevention) Act thanks to efforts of Birubala Rabha. She has been waging a lonely battle against the widespread evil of branding women as ‘daini’ or witch and, more often than not, lynching them. The 72-year-old has saved hundreds of women from the jaws of death by blood-thirsty mobs. She has faced threats to her life and was even branded a witch herself, but she remains unfazed. Birubala has been working in the field and talking against the superstition of witchcraft. Although she stays in the Goalpara district of Assam, she travels extensively with her message. She has been awarded the Padma Shri for her efforts. Bharat Ratna is the highest civilian award of the country. It is awarded in recognition of exceptional service/performance of the highest order in any field of human endeavour. It is treated on a different footing from Padma Award. The recommendations for Bharat Ratna are made by the Prime Minister to the President of India. No formal recommendations for Bharat Ratna are necessary. The number of Bharat Ratna awards is restricted to a maximum of three in a particular year. Despite his tremendous contributions for upliftment of the poor and the weakest sections of the society, former Bihar Chief-Minister and OBC leader Karpoori Thakur was never ever given his due, by successive Congress dispensations. The Congress and its fork-tongued scion Rahul Gandhi talk of empowering OBCs, but it took a leader of PM Modi’s towering stature to bestow the Bharat Ratna on Thakur,36 years after Thakur’s demise. Even earlier, without bothering about ideological affiliations, the Modi government has awarded Bharat Ratna to the legendary Bhupen Hazarika and Pranab Mukherjee, who was a career Congressman for the longest time. On the contrary, the erstwhile Congress regimes treated Padma awards and the Bharat Ratna as their personal fiefdoms. For instance, Nehru awarded the Bharat Ratna to himself in 1955 and Indira Gandhi followed suit by doing so in 1972. Rajiv Gandhi was also awarded the Bharat Ratna by the then Congress dispensation, albeit posthumously in 1991.PM Modi has never ever used these prestigious awards for personal gratification or for deriving any political mileage. Awards under the erstwhile Congress regimes had lost their relevance and gravitas as they had become political tools of self-serving politicians. Under the Modi government however, awards have reclaimed their lost glory and relevance because now awards are given to the deserving, without any fear or favour. Coming back to the 2024 Padma awards, eight eminent personalities from the South have been chosen to receive the awards for 2024. Among them, actor-turned politician Vijayakant has been chosen for the Padma Bhushan posthumously. Joshna Chinnappa has been given the Padma Shri in the Sports category. Former Vice President Venkaiah Naidu, cine superstars Vyjayantimala Bali and Chiranjeevi are among the Padma Vibhushan awardees. 30 awardees this year are women. Speaking of the South,Padma Shri awardee, Badrappan M, who hails from Dasampalayam in Mettupalayam taluk in Coimbatore, is an exponent of Valli Oyil Kummi, a folk dance, which is a mixed form of song and dance performance that depicts the stories of deities Murugan and Valli. Having learnt the art form as a youngster, he has been performing for the past 60 years now. A small farmer by trade, he says his grandchildren now look after the lands. The limited point is this–Prime Minister Narendra Modi who personally goes through the details of the potential awardees very painstakingly, before the final decision is taken, has democratized the Padma awards and that is not a mean achievement. There is no Rich-Poor, Man-Woman, North-South divide. The only factor that matters is how deserving and meritorious the candidates are and whether their contributions have benefitted the larger society in some form. Clearly, Prime Minister Modi has rationalised Padma awards to make it a platform to appreciate individuals setting pioneering examples for social change. The individuals conferred with the Padma awards have not only created brilliant examples for others to follow but also have elevated the pride of the nation with their service. Given Modi’s rise from humble beginnings to becoming one of the most popular and powerful leaders globally, his stamp of approval for these awards, reflects his own inspirational journey, in more ways than one. The author is an economist, national spokesperson for BJP and bestselling author of The Modi Gambit. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views. Read all the Latest News , Trending News , Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.