Withdraw Morarji Desai’s Bharat Ratna: Petition

Mumbai: A city-based lawyer has filed a petition in the Bombay high court asking it to withdraw the country’s highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna, which was conferred on former Prime Minister late Morarji Desai in 1991 on the grounds that he was a man of “double standards”. The petitioner cited extracts from Desai’s autobiography “The Story of My Life” wherein he had recorded his staunch disapproval of government-conferred Bharat Ratna and Padma awards that were allegedly abused by certain recipients. During his stint as the PM during 1977-80, Desai had even suspended these awards. The petitioner referred to Desai’s alleged “double standards” and “opportunism”, by saying that Desai did accept Pakistan’s highest civilian award and the Bharat Ratna too.

According to the petition filed by Dhananjaysinh Vinayakrao Jagtap, as per Desai’s own admission the Indian government had started conferring awards in 1954 as an inducement for citizens after conferring of titles, which was started by the British government, was discontinued after Independence. The petition has claimed that even before becoming the PM, Desai had said, “I did not agree with the decision of the Govt. of India and have not recommended any person for such awards.” The petition said that Desai, who was the CM of the undivided Bombay state during 1952-56 and died in 1995, had suspended conferring of awards during his tenure as PM thus depriving deserving people of the same.

The petition further questions that while Desai had strong views against conferring of awards he had accepted the Bharat Ratna when it was bestowed upon him in 1991 and “thus he exposed himself as a double standard and opportunist person, which disqualifies him to the recipient of Bharat Ratna Award.” The petition also questions whether the conferring of the award on Desai by Government of India is a” Bharat Ratna Award fraud/scam and therefore whether Government of India must take necessary steps to withdraw the Bharat Ratna Award”.

When asked about the delay and relevance of the petition after 26 years of the award being conferred on Desai, Mr Jagtap said, “The cause in the matter is continuous, and as such there is no delay.”

Excerpt from biography
On the advent of freedom, the Government of India had discontinued the system of conferring tittles which the British Government had adopted. The availability of such titles led people to flatter those in power and harmed both government and society a great deal.”
(The Story of my Life, Volume II in Chapter 6 Diu, Daman and Goa – page 49 last paragraph in page No.50)