Jairam Ramesh tweeted: “The right thing to do. He wants to be Azad and not Ghulam”.
New Delhi:
The name of senior congressional leader Ghulam Nabi Azad in the Padma lists announced on the eve of the 73rd Republic Day provoked mixed reactions from fellow party members this evening. As Shashi Tharoor unequivocally welcomed the news, a jibe came from Jairam Ramesh.
Mr Ramesh retweeted the news of Bangladeshi Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee rejecting the Padma Prize and tweeted: “Right to do. He wants to be Azad and not Ghulam”.
The right thing to do. He wants to be Azad and not Ghulam. https://t.co/iMWF00S9Ib
— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) January 25, 2022
Both Mr Azad and Mr Bhattacharjee were awarded the Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian award. But while there was no response from the Congress leader, Mr Bhattacharjee — an archcritic of the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi — promptly issued a statement rejecting the award.
“I don’t know anything about the Padma Bhushan. No one told me about it. If indeed they gave me the Padma Bhushan, then I reject it,” said Mr Bhattacharjee’s statement in Bengali.
Minutes earlier, Mr. Ramesh had tweeted an excerpt from a book about the denial of the award by former bureaucrat PN Haskar.
“In January 1973, our country’s most powerful official was told that he was being offered the Padma Vibhushan upon his departure from the PMO. Here is PN Haksar’s answer to it. It’s a classic and worthy of imitation,” the caption read. .
In January 1973, our country’s most powerful official was informed that he was being offered the Padma Vibhushan upon his departure from the PMO. Here is PN Haksar’s response to it. It is a classic and deserves to be imitated. pic.twitter.com/H1JVTvTyxe
— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) January 25, 2022
Public refusal of Padma awards is extremely rare, as winners are required to be informed about the prize in advance and the list is not disclosed until after their acceptance.
In this case, Home Ministry officials explained the flub by saying that Mr Bhattacharjee’s wife heard the decision about Padma Bhushan and thanked the Home Secretary for it.
The announcement of the lists comes weeks before a bitterly contested election campaign in five states, including Uttar Pradesh and Congress-ruled Punjab.
It also comes amid turmoil within Congress over leadership issues. Mr Ramesh and Mr Azad are in opposing camps. While the Kashmir leader was one of the party veterans who cited sweeping organizational changes and permanent responsible leadership, Mr Ramesh was staunch in his support of the Gandhi family.
Azad is the second congressman to receive a Padma award. In 2008 Pranab Mukherjee got Padma Vibhushan from the government where he was a minister. In 2019, he was awarded the Bharat Ratna Prize.
His party colleague Shashi Tharoor congratulated him shortly after the Padma announcements.
“Warm congratulations to Shri @ghulamnazad on his Padma Bhushan. It is good to be recognized for one’s public service even by a government from the other side,” his tweet read.
The senior leader had hailed Mr Azad as “the only congressman who has brought the prime minister to tears!” during his retirement from Rajya Sabha in February last year.