Modi govt uses Bharat Ratna awards to send political message across
While the UPA government reserved all three Bharat Ratnas during its 10 years to non-politicians (CNR Rao, Bhimsen Joshi and Sachin Tendulkar), the Modi government has made politically astute choices in selecting each of the awardees.
The timing of the awards followed by entry of new allies in NDA cannot be seen as coincidences. The conferring of Bharat Ratna on Karpoori Thakur was meant to show the importance BJP gave to Backwards and Extremely Backward Communities. Nitish Kumar's second switch back to NDA followed the announcement.
By honouring veteran Congress leader PV Narasimha Rao, the Modi government has not only looked bipartisan but also sent a message to Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, where the electoral prospects of the party was not bright.
Like JDU, TDP and BRS have reasons to move closer to BJP once again. BRS celebrated the honour to Rao, seen as a tall leader in Telangana, where Congress thrashed the party in recent assembly polls.
In western UP, the award for Charan Singh, a champion of farmer and Jat causes has cleared all doubts on Singh's grandson Jayant Choudhary's Rashtriya Lok Dal rejoining NDA. It comes at a time when farmers have begun a fresh agitation too. The honour to Swaminathan, the father of green revolution, was another message to the farming community.
While awarding LK Advani, and former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2015, Modi sent the message that he respected the stalwarts of his party, despite not enjoying cosy relationships with either at different times in his
