Doing the honours

With Republic Day almost here, it won8217;t be long before the national honours list arrives, setting down the new icons of the nation. Or ...

With Republic Day almost here, it won8217;t be long before the national honours list arrives, setting down the new icons of the nation. Or rather, listing those whom New Delhi would have us believe are the new icons of the nation. Tragically, this ceremony of consecration no longer evokes the easy acceptance of yore. The awe and respect that the nation once reserved for those who have made it to the list are now more likely than not to be replaced by scorn and cynicism. This observation is not ours alone. No less than the Union minister of communications, Pramod Mahajan, is on record for having stated that such awards invariably end up being given to various 8216;gaanewaley, bajaanewaley aur khaanewaley8217;.

The reason for this is not far to seek. The process of honouring the truly worthy amongst us has got hopelessly degraded over the years for numerous reasons. For one thing, a fatal casualness seems to have crept into the selection process. Stories are often told about how names, conjured up at a moment8217;s notice, are bandied about and sometimes even go on to make the grade. Although there is a set procedure of selection 8212; with a specially constituted selection committee headed by the cabinet secretary, et al 8212;somewhere along the way it becomes a mechanical business of adding and dropping names. What has damaged the process is the blatant lobbying that goes on by interests within the establishment which wish to pay back those who have rendered some useful service in the past.

The tendency of every political dispensation to utilise these awards to reward those who proved loyal and cultivate those less so, is possibly the single biggest reason for the devaluation of the Padma awards.

Yet every nation needs its heroes and not just because these pan-Indian figures help to unite it. Institutionalised public recognition is a useful way to renew standards and commemorate traditions. But the business of zeroing in on them is tricky and must be taken extremely seriously.

We need to evolve objective standards for awardees that can stand the test of both contemporary scrutiny and posterity. They may not all possess the famed Weberian charisma, 8216;that certain quality of an individual personality by virtue of which he is considered extraordinary8217;, but they must at least have made significant and inspiring contributions in their individual spheres and in ways that have benefitted society and the nation.

Remember, it is we who choose our heroes. As someone put it, the great ones are only great because we carry them on our shoulders; when we throw them off they sprawl on the ground.