Chk out my technical blog :
MaxxRamblings: Today was watching an NDTV debate on the Bharat Ratna, with the obvious reference to Sachin and Prof Rao..
The members of the debate were all equivocal to the fact that the Bharat Ratna should be someone who is par excellence in his field of work, should have contributed to the nation positively, will be remembered forever for a significant deed or deeds.
The debate centered around topics like, should sportsmen be considered? How to eradicate nepotism and favoritism from the selection process? Should it be awarded posthumously?.. etc..
Vinod Mehta and Ashish Nandy, said, since the Sportmen and Entertainers already have plethora of Award ceremonies, they should be excluded.. to which Javed Akhtar chided, Tendulkar and Lata Mangeshwar fills the nation with pride, pleasure, satisfaction like no other.. a thought which I too second (one of the blue moon occasions when I would echo Javed Akhtar's thoughts)
Then I noticed small acts of regionalism in the debate:
N Ram voiced that eminent Mathematician CV Raman (considered God by the Indian maths community) and the noted agriculturist M Swaminathan (Father of Indian Green Revolution) were ignored whereas Prof Rao was chosen..He also stated that some of the people were awarded simply because they had died a horrible death, obviously alluding to Rajiv Gandhi, we all know that our Southern most neighbours have a special gripe towards the Late PM... to which Ashish Nandy quipped that SN Bose was ignored too..
The debate took a interesting turn when the host Karan Thapar, recounted some interesting yet disconcerting facts
- 25 of the 45 awardees so far are Politicians.. Well we all now know who chooses the Bharat Ratnas, right? And to dig little deeper, almost all of them belong to a single party.. any guesses which??
- Nelson Mandela and Ghan Abdul Gafar Khan were awardees too, God knows what contribution they made to become a Jewels of India...
- Many of the awardees were awarded post humously, and there too politicians take the cake. Does it really merit that such a prestigious prize be given post humously? And if so where do we stop? Can some one propose Gautam Buddha, Ashoka or Akbar?
-One interesting fact is that the ex Prez Dr. Kalam had refused to accept the award reasoning that he himself was a part of the jury.
I liked one suggestion that the benchmarks for receiving the award and the nominations and their scores be published.
All in all it was a thoroughly enjoyable debate, wherein all the participants were quite vociferous and pushed their points quite strongly...
