The Hindu : Front Page : Pranab seeks to clear the air on Padma award

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Friday, Feb 08, 2008
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Pranab seeks to clear the air on Padma award

Marcus Dam

Points out that serving Ministers had received such awards

KOLKATA: External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee believes that there should be no room for controversy over the decision to award Padma Vibhushan to him on the ground that he is in government “although there are always differences [in views] in a democracy.”

“I may have been given it [the award] while being in government but I do not think there is any room for controversy” on this count, Mr. Mukherjee said at a felicitation function organised by the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee here on Thursday.

Serving Ministers had received such national awards in the past, he said.

The Trinamool Congress, whose relations with the Congress are at a low ebb, has been critical of the award being given to a serving Minister.

“The awards have become political awards,” its chief Mamata Banerjee has said.

Mr. Mukherjee also cautioned against emergence of intolerance in parliamentary democracy that could lead to fascism.

He regretted that there were signs of intolerance showing in the country’s parliamentary democratic system whose principal tenets “are debate, discussion and dissension.”

“Forcibly imposing one’s views on others amounts to fascism.”

He said:

“India is the largest democracy in the world but what is required is to provide it the right direction. But what we are seeing in Parliament and State Assemblies is that instead of debates being held, there is only pandemonium.

“We spend crores of rupees to prop up the democratic structure but if discussions are not allowed to be held on important issues such as the budget, Bills and on issues, how can this structure be strengthened?”

With humility

Mr. Mukherjee said that he had accepted the award with humility, adding that such receptions “served to enthuse” the awardees and “inspire them to strive on in their endeavours.”

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