Context: Prime Minister conferred the Bharat Ratna on former Prime Ministers Chaudhary Charan Singh and P V Narasimha Rao, and agricultural scientist M S Swaminathan who led India’s Green Revolution. Earlier, Karpoor Thakur (for his social justice legacy) and L.K. Advani was conferred the Award.
More Information from the news article:
- At five, this is the maximum number of Bharat Ratnas announced in a year. In 1999, four Bharat Ratnas were announced.
- P. V. Narasimha Rao, served as the 9th prime minister of India from 1991 to 1996:
- He is known for introducing various liberal reforms to India's economy.
- When he held the Industries Portfolio, he dismantled the Licence Raj.
- In 1991, Rao employed Manmohan Singh as his finance minister to embark on important economic transition.
- With Rao's mandate, Manmohan Singh launched India's globalisation angle of the reforms that implemented the International Monetary Fund (IMF) policies to rescue the almost bankrupt nation from economic collapse.
- Chaudhary Charan Singh served as the 5th prime minister of India:
- Charan Singh followed Mahatma Gandhi in non-violent struggle for independence and was imprisoned several times.
- In 1930, he was jailed by the British for contravention of the salt laws.
- Charan Singh opined that the right of ownership was important to the farmer. He wanted to preserve and stabilize a system of peasant proprietorship.
- He was the chief architect of land reforms in the U.P. and he took a leading part in formulation and finalization of the Debt Redemption Bill 1939, which brought great relief to rural debtors.
- As the 5th Chief Minister of U.P., he was instrumental in bringing about the Land Holding Act 1960 which was aimed at lowering the ceiling on land holdings to make it uniform throughout the State.
- His birthday on 23 December is celebrated as Kisan Diwas in India.
- M.S. Swaminathan:
- He is credited as the architect of the Green Revolution.
- Swaminathan's collaborative scientific efforts with Norman Borlaug and other scientists and backed by public policies, saved India and Pakistan from certain famine-like conditions in the 1960s.
- His leadership as director general of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines was instrumental in his being awarded the first World Food Prize in 1987.
- The United Nations Environment Programme has called him ‘the Father of Economic Ecology’.
- He coined the term ‘Evergreen Revolution’ in 1990 to describe his vision of ‘productivity in perpetuity without associated ecological harm’.
- It was the Swaminathan Committee that recommended in 2006 that the MSP should be 1.5 times the cost of production that a farmer incurs.
Awards given by Government of India:
About Bharat Ratna:
- The designation ‘Bharat Ratna,’ which translates to 'Jewel of India,' signifies the highest civilian honour presented by the Republic of India.
- Established in 1954, the Bharat Ratna is granted to extraordinary individuals who have demonstrated exceptional accomplishments.
- Originally focused on recognizing achievements in art, science, literature, and public service, the criteria underwent an expansion in December 2011 to encompass excellence in 'any field of human endeavour.'
- Selection process:
- Recommendations for the award can only be made by the Prime Minister to the President, with a maximum of three nominees honoured annually.
- In 1999, an exception saw four individuals receiving the honour.
- Although no monetary reward accompanies the honour, recipients receive a unique Peepal-leaf shaped medal and a certificate known as a ‘Sanad.’
- In the hierarchy of the Indian Order of Precedence, Bharat Ratna recipients hold the seventh rank.
- The usage of the title 'Bharat Ratna' as a prefix or suffix is exempt from Article 18(1) of the Constitution, as established by the Supreme Court's precedent in Balaji Raghavan/S.P. Anand v. Union of India in 1995.
- The first recipients in 1954 included C. Rajagopalachari, the last Governor-General of the Dominion of India; Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, the second President and first Vice President of India; and Nobel Prize Laureate and Physicist C. V. Raman.
- Originally, the statutes did not allow for posthumous awards, but in January 1955, amendments were made to permit them. The first posthumous honouree was former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri.
- Despite typically being conferred upon India-born citizens, notable exceptions include Mother Teresa, a naturalized citizen, and non-Indians such as Abdul Ghaffar Khan (originally from British India, later a citizen of Pakistan) and Nelson Mandela, a citizen of South Africa.
- The Bharat Ratna, along with other personal civil honours, faced brief suspensions during the periods of July 1977 to January 1980 and August 1992 to December 1995, due to changes in the national government and legal challenges to their constitutional validity.
- In 1992, controversy arose over the posthumous award to Subhas Chandra Bose, leading to a cancellation following a Supreme Court decision in 1997, a unique instance where the award was announced but not conferred.
- Recipients whose awards have been revoked must surrender their medals, and their names are struck from the register.
- There is no Bharat Ratna Award winners list for 2020 and 2021.
Several special entitlements:
- The medallion and its miniature counterpart.
- A Sanad (certificate) signed by the President of India.
- Treatment as a state guest by state governments when traveling within a state.
- Assistance from Indian missions abroad upon request.
- Eligibility for a diplomatic passport.
- Lifetime complimentary executive class travel on Air India.
- Occupying the seventh position in the Indian order of precedence.