Bharat Ratna for ex-PMs Charan Singh, Narasimha Rao, scientist Swaminathan

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, February 9

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday announced the BJP-led NDA government’s decision to bestow Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian honour, on late Prime Ministers PV Narasimha Rao and Chaudhary Charan Singh and legendary agricultural scientist Monkombu Sambasivan Swaminathan, whose vision transformed India from an import dependent to a food grain-surplus nation almost overnight in the late 1960s.

Congress welcomes announcement

• Congress, which has often been accused by the BJP of being indifferent to the role played by PV Narasimha Rao as PM, has welcomed the honour bestowed on the former PM.
• In a post on X, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said, “Former Prime Minister Narasimha Rao has made tremendous contribution to nation-building.”
• Describing Charan Singh as “a son of the soil”, Kharge said he had helped strengthen rural India. MS Swaminathan was “an institution builder par excellence”, he added.

Modi lauds awardees’ contribution to nation-building

Narasimha Rao’s tenure as PM fostered new era of economic growth; Swaminathan ji’s contribution to agriculture was monumental; Chaudhary Charan Singh dedicated his life to farmers’ rights.

With this, the number of Bharat Ratnas awarded so far stands at 53. Five honours have been conferred this year, the highest annual number since the awards were first presented in 1954. Narasimha Rao is the second leading Congress figure after late President Pranab Mukherjee to be awarded the Bharat Ratna.

The honour for Charan Singh and Swaminathan signals ruling BJP’s solidarity with farmers with both late leaders associated with the cause of agriculture and farm productivity.

The timing of the announcements is significant and comes ahead of another farmers’ protest cycle planned from February 13 on the principal demand of legalised MSP structure.

“The Bharat Ratna to Chaudhary Charan Singh and MS Swaminathan exemplifies the government’s commitment to the agricultural sector,” official sources said with the BJP in talks with INDIA bloc’s Rashtriya Lok Dal for an alliance ahead of Lok Sabha elections.

Jayant Chaudhary, the grandson of Charan Singh, all but announced a positive outcome of these talks when he said the BJP had won his heart today.

By rewarding Rao, who faced multiple humiliations at the hands of parent party Congress, the government has sought to position Modi as a bipartisan leader who can rise above politics when honouring national legends.

Among five Bharat Ratna awardees this year, only LK Advani is from the BJP. Late Bihar CM and OBC icon Karpoori Thakur, Narasimha Rao and Charan Singh represent rival political ideologies. Swaminathan is the only non-political awardee.

The PM’s Friday announcements also make a southern connection with both Rao and Swaminathan hailing from South India.

The award to Rao, a Telugu, would send a signal across Andhra Pradesh and Telangana — both electorally weak pitches for the BJP which has no Lok Sabha MP (out of 25) from Andhra and only four (out of 17) from Telangana.

Kumbakonam-born Swaminathan’s felicitation will similarly appeal to Tamil Nadu, where the BJP is seeking an electoral base as it didn’t win any Lok Sabha seat from there last time.

“The message is that the Prime Minister values the contributions from all corners of the country,” sources said just two days after Modi accused the Congress of peddling North-South divide narratives to “weaken the country”.

The PM also questioned the Congress for not honouring Father of the Constitution BR Ambedkar with a Bharat Ratna and said Ambedkar was feted in 1990 by a non-Congress government supported by the BJP. He has also attacked the Congress for being “parochial and self-serving in failing to look beyond one family”.

The honour to Rao, who as PM led the Congress government after Rajiv Gandhi’s 1991 assassination, is especially significant given his unsung demise. After he passed away in 2004, Rao’s body was not allowed inside Congress headquarters nor was he given a memorial in Delhi. He was cremated in Hyderabad.

Rao led India at a highly critical juncture not only turning around the nose-diving economy in the early 1990s, but also revitalising the country’s foreign policy. However, the Congress lost the 1996 General Election under his leadership and shrunk from 232 to 140 in the Lok Sabha, a loss of 42.6% seats. The BJP bagged 161 seats.

The loss, despite Rao’s radical economic reforms, was attributed to Muslim alienation in the wake of the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition under the Congress government’s watch; rise of Mandal parties and the resurgence of the BJP around the Ram Mandir movement.

India’s fifth Prime Minister Chaudhary Charan Singh, born to a humble peasant family, passed away in 1987. As PM and earlier Uttar Pradesh’s first non-Congress Chief Minister, he prioritised land reforms and farmer welfare. The award to Singh might create a positive impact for the BJP across Jat-dominated belts of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan.