Calls to give former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian honor, have gathered steam within the Congress a day after the Telangana Assembly passed a resolution calling on the Center to do so.
Pramod Tiwari, the Congress Deputy Leader in the Rajya Sabha, informed the news agency that he agreed with the Telangana government’s proposal. “I urge the Centre to accept the resolution. Manmohanji was a great leader of our country and he should be awarded the Bharat Ratna,” he said.
According to Congress national spokesperson Subharansh Kumar Rai, the Telangana Assembly has called for someone who has supported causes like MNREGA, the Right to Education, and the Right to Information to get the Bharat Ratna. “It is only fitting that he receives the highest honor in the nation,” he stated.
In addition to the resolution, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and the BJP, Telangana’s ruling and opposition parties, momentarily came together during a day-long special session of the Assembly and decided to honor the former prime minister by erecting a statue of him in a prominent Hyderabad area.
Days after the BJP accused Congress Parliamentary Party Chairperson Sonia Gandhi of “not responding to a recommendation by former President Pranab Mukherjee for conferring the award” on Singh in 2013, the motion was passed.
The BJP questioned the Revanth Reddy-led Telangana government’s move, with party spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla telling, “Instead of passing resolutions in the Assembly, Reddy should ask Sonia Gandhi, as disclosed by Sharmishtha Mukherjeeji, why was a similar proposal floated by Pranab and sent to (Singh’s principal secretary) Pulok Chatterjee not taken forward in a proper manner? Why was the Bharat Ratna not conferred upon the first Sikh PM of India? It only shows that the (Gandhi) family is insecure of any non-Nehru-Gandhi PM.”
Another BJP leader, on the condition of anonymity, claimed that the Congress was “demonstrating commitment to Dr Singh with an eye on Sikh votes”. The leader went on to say that since the Center had previously agreed to the demand to erect a memorial for Singh, the action would not have any political ramifications.
Singh, who died last week at the age of 92, was cremated at Nigambodh Ghat on Saturday with full state honors in front of a number of national and international dignitaries.
Rai called the allegations that Singh was denied the Bharat Ratna 2013 “absolute lies” and rejected it, requesting that the BJP release its supporting documentation.
There has been no response from the party’s central leadership over the Telangana resolution, despite some prominent Congress leaders stating that state legislatures have the authority to enact resolutions. A top Congress lawmaker stated, “We welcome it if some states are doing it, but we haven’t told them to do anything like this.”
However, as the ruling party blasted Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, “for flying abroad to ring in the new year” during the seven-day mourning period, the verbal spat between the Congress and the BJP over Singh’s funeral and a memorial site continued on Tuesday.
Manickam Tagore, the Congress Whip in the Lok Sabha, dismissed the accusations made over the last two days, calling the BJP’s statements “take-a-diversion politics.” It is disheartening that Modi’s ministers besieged his family and refused to allow Dr. Saheb to be cremated on the Yamuna’s banks. “Why is it bothering you if Gandhi travels in private?” he posed on Monday. On Tuesday, Tiwari claimed Gandhi’s was a pre-planned visit and that “crores of people had seen tears in his eyes” after Singh passed away.
