The former Bengal CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Tuesday rejected Padma Bhushan as soon as the center named it among the honorary recipients.
Bengal Sandhya Mukhopadhyay and Tabla Maestro PT Anindo Chattopadhyay rejected Shri Padma, quoting different reasons.
Sources said the wife of Bhattacharjee Meera received a call from the center of 2 o’clock at noon about her sick husband in giving awards.
He broke the news to him, where he smiled, said the source.
But when MHA officially announced the list of the recipient’s Padma later, Bhattacharjee told her wife that she would not accept with personal reasons.
In a vague written statement, he said, “I did not know the Padma Bhushan Award given to me.
Nothing communicated it to me.
If I was chosen for award, I reject it.” Sitaram Yechury Politburo CPM member associated the same statement of words as Bhattacharjee and shared it on his official Twitter handle.
MHA’s sources were confirmed to the Toi that K secretary K Bhalla had called Meera to tell him about her husband who was chosen for Padma Bhushan.
Bhalla couldn’t talk to Bhattacharjee directly because he was told that CPM veterans were not healthy.
According to the source of the party, the Secretary of State CPM Surjya Kanta Mishra contacted Bhattacharjees, and left it to the former CM to receive the last telephone.
People in CPM felt that Bhattacharjee had done the right thing because, as Marxists, they did not tend to receive government awards for public services.
They remembered a similar situation in 2008, when the LED Government Congress I proposed the highest civilian award, Bharat Ratna, for the former Head of Bengal Bengal Bukale Bask.
Basu then rejects it.
CPM officials considering that the Government of PV Narasimha Rao has also proposed Padma Vibhushan for former Head of Minister of Kerala and Freedom Fighter E Namboodiripad.
“EMS does not accept proposals,” said a senior party official.
Mukhopadhyay’s singer, 90-year-old, refused the offer because he found it “embarrassing” that a government official called him right before the official announcement.
Tabla Maestro Chattopadhyay said the award came 12 years late.