Returning awards: Urgent need for a 'no-returns' policy

Awards of all kinds and vintages being returned in a sort of domino effect has become a leitmotif of recent times. Even S Subramania Iyer and Rabindranath Tagore giving up their knighthoods over a century ago did not trigger any comparable knock-on effect. However, given the sheer volume and diversity of gongs being renounced these days — setting a dangerous precedent — award-conferring authorities must surely be wondering how to protect their precious handouts from being handed back sooner or later. Considerable time and effort are lavished on deciding and conferring these awards, so some form of a ‘no-returns’ policy that stores levy on certain merchandise may now be worth examining.

In that context, the move of the UP chief minister to announce a generous pension for all recipients of the state’s Yash Bharti award — curiously conferred only when the Samajwadi Party is in power — must be commended as a clever device. After all, only those of the eminence of the Bachchans (three of whom are awardees) would be able to decline a Rs 50,000 monthly pension without a demur. The chief minister’s airy dismissal of the very idea of the awards ever being returned should be seen in the light of this compelling financial incentive, which puts to shade stipends awarded to other categories by his own state and others.