Modi's ultimate .... Googly - Congress, Jats, farmers all bowled over !! Charan Singh was 'ditched' by Indira, Swaminathan worked closely with Indira :: And Rao was her Home Minister in 1984

In a surprising development, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, Feb 9, announced Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award for two former Prime Ministers Late Charan Singh and Late P V Narasimha Rao.

Noted agricultural scientist and 'Father of Green Revolution' M S Swaminathan too will get the unique award.  

Usually, three Bharat Ratna awards are given in a year. However, this year, the Modi government has named five people for Bharat Ratna. Earlier the big announcement was made in favour of India's original Mandal Messiah Karpoori Thakur and BJP patriarch and PM Modi's political mentor L K Advani.  

The choice of PV Narasimha Rao would be of course a key decision that would decide people's decision on the voting day in two states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

Put together these two states have 42 seats - 25 Andhra where the wave is in favour of N Chandrababu Naidu of TDP; while in Telangana, the BJP won four seats in 2019 but the Congress stormed to power in December 2023. 

A 'Mood of the Nation survey' showed Congress could win at least 10 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana where the Chief Minster Revanth Reddy is definitely a Congressman but was once a popular ABVP leader in the Deccan region. 

P V Narasimha Rao served as the prime minister from June 21, 1991 to May 16, 1996 and was instrumental in ushering the new era of Economic Liberalisation.  

He was born in 1921 in Andhra Pradesh's Karimnagar and studied at Osmania University in Hyderabad, Bombay University, and Nagpur University.

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M S Swaminathan: A light that shone was no ordinary light

Essentially Swaminathan was a compassionate man concerned about hunger and like his mentor, guide and associate Norman Borlaug; Swaminathan also believed that "the battle to ensure food security for hundreds of millions of miserably poor people is far from won."

Around the year 2000, along with Dr Borlaug, Swaminathan was still in agony that "the world's population who felt hunger between 1960 and 2000 had fallen from about 60 percent to 14 percent."

The agri-scientist and hailed as the ‘Father of the Green Revolution’ in India knew that the figure translated into 850 million men, women and children.

In the 1960s, Dr Swaminathan worked with Dr Norman Borlaug, and other experts to produce HYV Wheat seeds.

He started teaching small-scale farmers how genetically engineered grains might enable them to grow higher yields. These demonstrations were game-changing since the crop tripled prior output levels in the first year of the green revolution era. Because of his efforts, it is said the average agricultural production increased from 12 million tonnes to 23 million tonnes in just four crop seasons.

Swaminathan worked closely with Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to develop agricultural programs and policies that would assist the country in remaining self-sufficient in agriculture.  

Dr Swaminathan, was the Director General of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and was an Indian agronomist, agricultural scientist, plant geneticist, administrator, and humanitarian. 

He passed away in September last year. 

M.S. Swaminathan was named the first World Food Prize Laureate for developing and spearheading the introduction of high-yielding wheat and rice varieties into India during the 1960s when that country faced the prospect of widespread famine.

Born in Uttar Pradesh's Meerut in 1902, Charan Singh served as the prime minister from July 28, 1979 to January 14, 1980.

He was first elected to the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly in 1937 from Chhaprauli. He represented the constituency in 1946, 1952, 1962 and 1967. 

Awarding Charan Singh is linked to management of Jat anguish.  A section of Indian intellectuals and political class were trying to woo Jat leader from western UP, Satya Pal Mallick. The former Governor of Jammu and Kashmir had aleady tried to embarrass PM Modi over Pulwama. 

Now all such efforts have gone in vain apparently. The farmers' anguish of 2020-21 would also go in vain. The BJP government and a leader like Modi was forced to take back the three pro-farm Bills.  

Team Modi: The Irreplaceable and Irresistible





 

Social commentator, Kirti Patil in Pune says, "Modi is three-Chanakya put together. There was so much slamming and backbiting when Bharat Ratna award bestowed on L K Advani on all forms of social media. so this is clever balancing act..".