A long overdue honour for Vajpayee

The conferring of the nation’s highest honour, the Bharat Ratna, on former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, and posthumously on Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya, the famous freedom fighter, restores balance to the roll call of the makers of modern India in all its shades. Both were born on Christmas Day. The announcement by President Pranab Mukehrjee, thoughtfully made on the eve of the anniversary of their birth, heals an ideological gap, particularly in the case of Malviya.

Although he had twice been Congress president, his association with the Hindu Mahasabha,  which recently gained notoriety when it declared that it would put up the busts of Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin Nathuram Godse across the country, has long alienated the freedom fighter and educationist from the secular sections of India, even though they recognised his sterling contributions. But it should be recalled that the title of “Mahamana” had been conferred on Malviya by none other than Gandhi, whose “Khilafat” movement Malviya had opposed. Pandit Nehru’s government issued a postage stamp in Malviya’s name to honour him. Forgotten was the fact that Malviya had left the Congress over the communal award issue to float the Congress Nationalist Party.

Giving the Bharat Ratna to Mr Vajpayee was, of course, a no-brainer. This BJP leader showed the sagacity to shake hands across ideological and political walls, and was generally not swayed by the heat of the moment. His silver tongue was known to promote tolerance. He conspicuously stayed away from the destruction of the Babri Masjid in 1992, much to the annoyance of the Sangh Parivar, and pulled up then Chief Minister Narendra Modi for the communal carnage in Gujarat in the post-Godhra situation in 2002.

These were signal contributions and the last Congress-led government erred in not recognising their true worth in an India that will be lacerated if the communal question is sought to be exploited by political parties. Pandit Nehru must have seen some early promise in Mr Vajpayee when the latter was a callow parliamentarian, for the first PM prophesied that the young (then Jan Sangh) MP would become Prime Minister one day.

It is in the gift of the ruling party of the day to confer national honours. Since all awards can be contentious, and political considerations invariably guide selections especially where politicians are concerned, arguments can be mustered when anyone is picked for a national honour. But we heal social and political fractures when we recognise merit in people of all political persuasions. The present dispensation would do well to keep this in view.