Who are the people applying for the coveted Bharat Ratna?
16 Aug, 2014The efforts made by the citizens to obtain the coveted Bharat Ratna have been made public by the reply provided by the PMO to a RTI applicant. Various aspirants addressed their letters to the high offices like the PM, the President of India, the home minister or political leaders including Sonia Gandhi making different claims, some bordering on absurdity.
· Anand Rao Malhare Bhongale from Yavatmal district of Maharashtra listed more than a dozen accomplishments in his letter including his ground-breaking efforts in brokering peace between the Israel and the Arabs which he claimed to be the result of his writing a letter to former US president Jimmy Carter. He also claimed credit for the constitution of the Mandal Commission and launch of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas.
· Rama K Poojary from Udipi district in Karnataka claimed in his application that he undertook lunar mission thrice and went on spaceflight four times. In support of his claim, he enclosed a photograph of himself in a lunar suit as proof. As per his claim, his first lunar mission took place in 1956.
· M Prabakaran, an engineer from Coimbatore district of Tamil Nadu, averred in two separate representations (April 2 and April 9, 2013) that he is ‘son of God’, ‘son of sun’ and ‘messenger of God’.
· N K Raghavan from Alappuzha district of Keerala claimed to have discovered a new value of Pi.
· Suri Singh Rawat, a resident of Sultan Puri of Delhi wanted the award for the ‘six papers’ submitted by him on subjects of administration.
The RTI application was filed by Rakesh Dubbudu, the convenor of United Forum for RTI Campaign, in December, 2013.