By Arun Joshi
A needless controversy over Padma Bhushan award for Ghulam Nabi Azad, a leading national leader with his roots in Jammu and Kashmir where he was born and brought up and started political career to rise to the high positions in the Union government and also to serve his home state as chief minister, is having international connotations. Those who have stirred the controversy have done damage not only to the national award but also to the nation’s cause in Kashmir.
This point perhaps was not known to those who started the controversy, polarizing the national award, as their attempt was to portray Azad in a partisan political light, and perhaps with the communal overtones without realizing that what effect it would have overall perceptions at the international level, where countries like Pakistan and China are working overtime to draw differences between the nation and the state, now reduced to the Union Territory. This controversy, therefore, is dangerous.
Azad who continues to play a prominent role in national politics was dragged into controversy by some of his party colleagues to damage the persona of the leader who is in service of the Congress party over the past five decades. The controversy also hurts the image of J&K, which is an integral part of the country, no matter which party rules at the Centre.
A leader of the stature of Ghulam Nabi Azad, hailing from Jammu and Kashmir, awarded with the third highest civilian award, sends a message to the international community that how the nation views the territory and its leaders who have excelled in public service. This recognition is not of Azad as an individual but the lasing contributions he has made in strengthening the idea of India in Kashmir. He initiated the infrastructural development in J&K, and bridged gaps between communities and regions, during his years as Chief Minister in the erstwhile state, where all his speeches concluded by hailing India with the national slogan “ Jai Hind”.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh scored a self-goal for his party when he drew an obnoxious parallel between the West Bengal leader and former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, saying that, he wants to stay “ Azad” ( free) than “ Ghulam” ( slave). The point was not missed and it was clear that what he wanted to convey through his jibe, and most unfortunate was that the top party leadership, including Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, kept silent over the tweet of Jai Ram Ramesh.
Perhaps these critics have not understood what refusing an award by top most leader of J&K would have meant. It would tantamount to undermining the national award and that, too, at the times when there are threats accumulating on the borders in the erstwhile state of J&K- Chinese troops amassed at the LAC in eastern Ladakh, and Pakistan looking for all sorts of opportunities to damage J&K at the Line of Control and the hinterland .
Padma Bhushan is a national award, there was no need to politicize it because the implication behind the tweet was that Azad has sold his soul to BJP. That is a disrespect to the national award and the awardee , and it also demonstrated that there are many in Congress, the premier national party, ignorant about the sensitivities involved in the whole issue. Does that mean that all those who were listed in Padma award lists since the BJP came to power were chosen for partisan reasons? He has, therefore, undermined all the personalities who have won national awards during different regimes. Were they honoured during the Congress governments or during the BJP led governments.
The first place, it is important to know, that Ghulam Nabi Azad comes from a remote area of Bhalesa in Doda district of Jammu and Kashmir, who rose to become union minister and then Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir and then ruled in the national politics as minister and leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha. This is his political profile.
Those who have criticized him for not refusing the award are forgetting his contributions; his impeccable secular credentials, and despite being a Muslim he has acceptability among all communities and he is respected across the political divide. His speeches in the Parliament are of historic importance and would serve the new parliamentarians and generations to know how the Indian parliamentary democracy worked. One of the most important parts of his speeches was on August 5, 2019, when as leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha, he had opposed the government’s move on J&K.
Against this backdrop, had Azad done what the critics expected of him to serve their narrow political interests, the enemies of India would have exploited that to the hilt.
| Posted by Neha Khan | 
