A cursory perusal of this year's Padma awards makes it amply clear that they are merely a means of political patronage and recompense for toeing the line of the present dispensation. A deceased top soldier with no known record of valour in wartime and a Hindutva poster boy whose only achievement was overseeing the demolition of a religious structure have been conferred with the highest peacetime award for contribution to 'public affairs'
A seer from the dominant religious sect, a politician from the opposition and a career bureaucrat have been bestowed the Padmas not for any public accomplishments but for keeping the saffron flag flying high. Hold it, there is more - an ex CM of Bengal has refused the Padma Bhushan, two prominent musicians from the same state have similarly declined the Padma Shri ; these awards have lost all their glory and are tools of government largesse to win over political opponents or make them more amenable to extant sarkari laws and ideology. The termite of politics has hollowed out these citations like most things in our republic, maybe it is time to abolish such meaningless honours.
