BSP chief Mayawati on Friday reacted to Bharat Ratna conferred on former PMs PV Narasimha Rao, Chaudhary Charan Singh and scientist MS Swaminathan, saying Dalit personalities were being ignored and disrespected. She was hinting at her demand for conferring the highest civilian honour on Dalit icon Kanshiram.
In a post on X BSP supremo Mayawati wrote, “All the personalities who have been honoured with Bharat Ratna by the present BJP government are welcome, but in this matter, it is not appropriate to disrespect and ignore especially the Dalit personalities. The government must pay attention to them also.”
“After a long wait, Baba Saheb Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar was honoured with the title of Bharat Ratna by the government of Shri VP Singh. After that, the struggle done by respected Shri Kanshi Ram ji, the messiah of the Dalits and the neglected, in their interests is no less. He should also be honoured with Bharat Ratna,” she added.
Earlier too, the BSP had raised the demand to confer the honour to Kanshiram. In a post on X, BSP national coordinator Akash Anand said, “The government of India should honour Kanshiram Saheb ji, the great leader of social change who gave political strength to crores of Dalits, exploited and minority communities of the country with the Bharat Ratna as soon as possible. Manyavar Saheb’s contribution to empowering the people of the country socially and economically is incomparable.”
Kanshi Ram, a supporter of Bhimrao Ambedkar, died at the age of 72 in 2006.
The recent announcement to confer the Bharat Ratna upon former Prime Ministers PV Narasimha Rao and Charan Singh, along with green revolution pioneer MS Swaminathan, has brought the total number of recipients of India’s highest civilian honour to 53.
This marks a notable increase, with five individuals receiving the award within 2024, the highest number awarded in a single year thus far. Prior to this, the record for the maximum number of Bharat Ratna awards given in a year was set in 1999, when four individuals were honoured with this prestigious recognition.
