Editor,
Whenever this award is announced, it became a cause of great nuisance to me on hearing the mentioning of this Padma Shri Award.It is my unstinted and unyielding belief beyond a shadow of a doubt that there should now be only be three (3) Civilian Awards that is the Bharat Ratna rated as the Gold Medal, the Padma Vibhushan rated as the Silver Medal and the Padma Bhushan rated as the Bronze Medal. Only three awards only and none other.
Padma Shri is generally considered as the Consolation Prize or Simple Pass of Civilian awards which is usually seen that mostly people from lower castes or tribes of India and in particular tribals from North East India usually get this award. I utterly despise this award vociferously since I was a teenager with every breath and fiber of my body; this fourth-place Padma Shri award. I fundamentally vouch for its abrogation. I strongly feel with all my heart and soul that this Consolatory Prize Award which brings a huge consolatory tone to it must be “Abrogated” with immediate effect.
I would like to make myself vividly clear that I am most certainly not disparaging past winners of the Padma Shri Award from 1955 – 2026 through no fault of theirs but rather I hold them in great reverence of their humongous achievement with utmost respect and humility. What I am merely yearning for is for its abrogation henceforth which the Indian government, I reckoned in 1954 and in 1955 had made a great mistake by creating this third class and later fourth place consolation – simple pass award.
An extremely important note is that this abrogation is made all the more easier because,all civilian awards “Do Not” entail any “cash award” but only a medal and a certificate which is an extremely important factor when taken into consideration as one of the many reasons cited for its abrogation.
Padma Shri is a relic of the past Congress government which some skeptics have alleged that this award was created with a caste minded agenda during that period of time for which it was a “Third Class Award” known as Tisra Warg and later further relegated to a “Fourth Class Award” renamed as the Padma Shrion January 8, 1955. Ever since the creation of civilian awards on January 2, 1954, the Tisra Warg or Padma Shri has always been frowned upon and viewed with apprehension because of the prior Third-Class Award namelinked to it and ever since known as the Fourth Class /Place award with a suspected malicious mindset for its creation. Regrettably,yet unknowingly,this loathing award has been allowed to foster till now. I would be eternally grateful if reforms in Civilian awards are made possible by the abrogation of this Console cum“Pat on the Back” Padma Shri award. There is no room for a fourth-place award in this day and age but only those three awards prior to this award hold monumental relevance prospectively. This will be a gigantic reform through a Presidential Notification by the Indian Government led by the BJP akin to the superb GST Reform, 2017 for which civilians will now get “Only and Exclusively” the gold, silver and bronze medal of civilian awards which is warranted and deserving of change.This award is a cause of great aggravation to me and I most emphatically earnestly hope that this Padma Shri award must be fundamentally,mandatorily be abrogated this year, root and stem. I am praying for change through my logical and most importantly cogent suggestion.
Melarbor L Thabah
Via e-mail
