Along with recognising the contribution of the recipient, the Padma and Bharat Ratna awards have always been tools for political messaging and the Narendra Modi government has been particularly astute in making its choices.
Mandal, Mandir, Market, Millets & Mandi: Narendra Modi’s 5M Bharat Ratna Spree. Just ahead of Lok Sabha elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is on a Bharat Ratna spree, awarding India’s highest civilian award to LK Advani, Karpoori Thakur, Chaudhary Charan Singh, Narasimha Rao and MS Swaminathan.
List of recipients of Bharat Ratna (1954-2024): Bharat Ratna- the highest civilian Award of India, was instituted in the year 1954. Bharat Ratna can be given to a maximum of 3 people in a year.
Rao's political leadership of India's economic turnaround and subsequent rise laid the foundations of a truly New and Rising India. Bharat Ratna to him now smacks of political opportunism