The News Minute | August 11, 2014 | 07:15 pm IST
Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian honour, of late has become a topic of heated debate across several forums. Former Prime Minister of India Atal Bihari Vaypayee and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose are said to be among the front runners for receiving the award and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is speculated to release the names on Independence Day.
However this piece of news did not go down too well with some. Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose's grandnephew Sugata Bose, criticised reports of his grandfather being considered for the award. Because according to him, the freedom fighter is above all such awards.
Chandra kumar bose, another grandnephew of Netaji told Times Now, “If the government wants to honour Netaji, they should declassify all documents and secret files regarding Subhash Chandra Bose. We request Prime Minister Narendra Modi to declassify all documents. This is the biggest cover up of independent India and unravel the mystery of Netaji’s disappearance.”
There was also some contention regarding the central government’s move ordering five medallions from the Reserve Bank of India's mint; only three Bharat Ratnas can be awarded in a year, and there are almost eight other names doing the rounds as possible awardees.
They include:
Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, who was a four-time Congress president, Hanuma Prasad Poddar who founded the Gita Press, BSP founder Kanshi Ram, Mohammed Rafi, Dhayan Chand and Milkha Singh.
The Government has not made any official response yet on the list of possible awardees of this year.
However, this has not stopped people, in fact it seems to have encouraged a lot, from suggesting names of who all according to them could be the most deserving recipient of the prestigious award.
This year India marks 67 years of Independence and seems to hold many a promises, excluding a national holiday, and including a sneak peak into who could be the next Bharat Ratna award recipients.
Given there are still four more days to go, the suggestions might keep piling on. As of now, we wonder would it be feasible, for one and all, to have an audience voting system from the next time.