A day after former West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee refused one of India’s highest civilian awards, legendary singer Sandhya Mukherjee and tabla exponent Anindya Chatterjee too refused the awards, although their refusal, unlike Bhattacharjee’s, which was prompted by a seeming disdain for state-awards, has more to do with the stature of the award.
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Among the awards announced on January 25 was a Padma Shri , India’s fourth-highest civilian honour to 90-year-old Sandhya Mukherjee whose career spans over 70 years. The student of Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Mukherjee has sung thousands of songs for Indian cinema and produced albums of modern, classical and semi-classical music. She received the national award in 1970 for play-back singing.
Mukherjee’s relatives told the media that she expressed her refusal when an official called her on Tuesday afternoon, telling him that accepting the Padma Shri would be demeaning for her.
She found support on Wednesday, but the matter has acquired distinctly political overtones.
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{{/usCountry}}Also Read | Bhattacharjee is latest among those who’ve refused Padma honours. Here’s a list
{{/usCountry}}“This was intentionally done to insult her because she is a Bengali. A few people, who are not even fit to be Sandhya Mukherjee’s students, have been awarded the Padma Bhushan. I wish I could leave this country because the government has no respect for its people,” said singer and former Trinamool Congress (TMC) Parliament member Suman Chatterjee who won the national award a few years ago.
“The Centre has proved that it is run by people who have no idea about those being honoured. The Centre would have felt honoured had it chosen the right award for Mukherjee,” added writer Abul Bashar.
The same allegation was made by Anindya Chatterjee on Tuesday. He said he was awarded the Padma Shri by people who know nothing about him or his career.
Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee refused to accept the Padma Bhushan (India’s third highest civilian honour) on Tuesday itself, saying in a statement: “I do not know anything about the Padma Bhushan award. Nobody said anything to me about this. If I have been given the award then I refuse it. ”
Among the 17 people selected for the Padma Bhushan, 77-year-old Bhattacharjee and veteran actor Victor Banerjee were the only ones listed as Bengal residents. Another Padma Bhushan recipient, Hindustani classical singer Rashid Khan, was listed as a resident of Uttar Pradesh, where he was born, although he has been living in Kolkata since the age of 10. “This is an honour for Bengal,” Khan told the media.
But he too commiserated with Mukherjee
“The awardees should be selected judiciously. Sandhya Didi (elder sister) did the right thing. I felt bad for her” Khan told a television channel on Wednesday.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alleged that the refusals were an expression of the anti-Centre stance of Bengal’s people.
“People of Bengal always seem to believe that they are not a part of India. This was prevalent during the Left Front era and things have not changed during the TMC regime. What is the harm in accepting an award from the government? The TMC is doing politics over the Padma awards,” said BJP national vice-president Dilip Ghosh.
Countering the BJP, the TMC alleged that politics influenced the selection process.
“Why was Bhattacharjee awarded the Padma Bhushan in a year when former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh, whose tenure witnessed the demolition of the Babri Masjid, was honoured posthumously? This is a political strategy to keep the CPI(M) in good humour because the BJP has grown in Bengal with Left votes,” said TMC state general secretary Kunal Ghosh.
The Congress and CPI(M) targeted the BJP as well.
“I feel that Bhattacharjee did not want to be honoured by a government that has created divisions among people of this nation,” said Congress Rajya Sabha member and former state president Pradip Bhattacharya even as the CPI(M) maintained that its leaders never accept such awards.
“By refusing the awards, Sandhya Mukherjee and Anindya Chatterjee have brought more honour upon themselves. The Centre’s decision proves that the awardees are chosen at random, not through an evaluation of their life and work,” said CPI(M) Rajya Sabha member and former Kolkata mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya.