For the past few years, the selectors of annual Padma awards have shown an inclination to pick ordinary individuals, apart from the usual political stalwarts and elites, who have done worthy service to society. This has led to a perception that they have grown democratic and inclusive, but the caste and community considerations and intended political messaging around who gets picked have become explicit.
While the use of state honours as a tool to cultivate patronage is a practice as old as the Republic itself, the Modi government seems to have replaced traditional ecosystem gratification with a more rigorous, tactical discipline. They operate like players never tired of the board game of cultivating electoral affections, even when the dice formation does not favour them.
This year, states like Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Bengal, which are headed to Assembly polls, have seen a large number of Padma awards, a spike generally observed in election years in states where the BJP is trying hard to break electoral ground. Kerala saw eight awards this year, the most prominent among them being the Padma Vibhushan, awarded posthumously to VS Achuthanandan, a veteran CPI(M) leader, former Chief Minister, and a fierce critic of Narendra Modi and his party's fascist politics.
Vellappally Natesan, general secretary of the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana (SNDP) Yogam, another stalwart of the Ezhava community, a powerful OBC group in Kerala, was awarded the Padma Bhushan. While Natesan was an obvious choice because of his proximity to the BJP (his son heads the Bharath Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS), an NDA ally), Achuthanandan, who passed away in July 2025, was a surprising choice.
Historically, the CPI(M) was opposed to state honours and two of its party leaders–EMS Namboothiripad in 1992 and Buddhadeb Bhattacharya in 2022–categorically said no to the Padma awards when the intimations came. Another senior leader, Jyoti Basu, ruled out ever accepting it when reports emerged that he was being considered for Bharat Ratna, the country's highest civilian honour.
In contrast, Achuthanandan's family was quick to accept the honour, describing it as a national salute to his lifelong political struggles, expressing “immense pride”. MV Govindan, state secretary of the CPI(M) in Kerala, while speaking to the media, welcomed the award and said the party shares the happiness of Achuthanandan's family. Natesan, who in a media interview had earlier spoken dismissively of the Padma awards, alleging that they could be bought with money, accepted it too. He dedicated his award to Sree Narayana Guru, one of Kerala’s prominent anti-caste reformers.
When the state confers an honour upon a community icon or a caste patriarch, it performs a dual function: it validates the collective identity of that group while simultaneously casting the political establishment as their ultimate benefactor. This bridge-building, bypassing traditional political intermediaries to establish a direct, emotive link between the corridors of power and the specific sentiments of caste and community pride, is evident in the Padma award bestowed on VS Achuthanandan, sidelined by his own party in the sunset years of his politics.
For the BJP, such overtures for the sake of OBC votes are not new. In 2023, they happily conferred Padma Vibhushan on the late Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav. It was during Yadav's chief ministership in 1990 that over 50 Hindutva supporters were shot dead while attempting to storm the Babri Masjid.
VS Achuthanandan once called Modi a ‘slaughterer’ and provocatively questioned the BJP’s cow politics with the rhetoric: ‘If cow is your mother, does the Ox qualify as father’. The BJP does not seem to be bothered by the ideological grandstanding of its opponents, once they leave the world. Their consideration largely revolves around the appropriation of community pride that remains when the ideologies of those who value his legacy turn into relics.
The party’s underlying message for the Left's traditional cadre base here is simple: We may disagree on politics, but we respect your 'father figure'.
One of the factors that defines the internal mechanics of the Kerala Left is the complex Thiyya-Ezhava binary. While the world sees them as a monolithic OBC block, in Kerala, they represent two distinct centres of gravity.
Political power in the contemporary CPI(M) is concentrated in Thiyyas, the community from which Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and other top leaders hail. They have historically viewed themselves as distinct from the Ezhavas of the South. In contrast, for the Ezhavas of South and Central Kerala, Achuthanandan was their ultimate champion within the party. His long-running political rivalry with Pinarayi Vijayan and the decisive shift in the party's centre of gravity to the Kannur/Thiyya leadership resulted in a sense of alienation for Ezhavas.
More than anyone, the BJP understands that the CPI(M)'s Ezhava base in the South is more ‘floating’ and increasingly disillusioned with the Pinarayi-led government. This opens up additional possibilities for the party in at least seven Assembly constituencies - Attingal, Kollam, Mavelikkara, Pathanamthitta, Idukki, Kottayam and Alappuzha.
In these regions, defined by SNDP influence and a deep-seated loyalty to Achuthanandan, the BJP’s decision to confer a Padma award upon him acts as a calculated gesture of filial piety. It is a symbolic "falling at the feet" of a patriarch whom the Ezhavas of South and Central Kerala still trust implicitly, by a party that prides itself as a sentinel of Indian tradition.
Views expressed are the author's own.