'Bharat Ratna for Manmohan Singh': Clamour grows in Congress as Telangana Assembly passes resolution

The chorus for Bharat Ratna to former PM Manmohan Singh is growing in Congress. (PTI photo)

The Telangana Assembly has passed a resolution urging the Centre to confer the Bharat Ratna on former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who passed away in New Delhi on December 26.

The resolution in the Telangana Assembly came amid the BJP's accusations that Congress parliamentary party chairperson Sonia Gandhi had “in 2013 not responded to a recommendation by former President Pranab Mukherjee for conferring the award” on Singh.

The resolution in the Telangana House has garnered support from some quarters in the Congress party. “I urge the Centre to accept the resolution. Manmohanji was a great leader of our country and he should be awarded the Bharat Ratna,” Congress Deputy Leader in the Rajya Sabha Pramod Tiwari told The Indian Express, expressing his support to the resolution.

Justifying the Telangana Assembly's resolution, Congress national spokesperson Subharansh Kumar Rai referred to Singh as a person who championed causes like the Right to Education, Right to Information, MNREGA and others. “It is only fitting that the country’s highest honour is bestowed upon him,” he said.

However, the BJP has questioned the Revanth Reddy-led government's move and wondered why the demand was allegedly ignored by Sonia Gandhi in 2017.

"Instead of passing resolutions in the Assembly, Reddy should ask Sonia Gandhi, as disclosed by Sharmishtha Mukherjeeji, why was a similar proposal floated by Pranab and sent to (Singh’s principal secretary) Pulok Chatterjee not taken forward in a proper manner? Why was the Bharat Ratna not conferred upon the first Sikh PM of India? It only shows that the (Gandhi) family is insecure of any non-Nehru-Gandhi PM," BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla said.

The Congress' central leadership, however, maintains that it has passed no directions to its state units to pass resolutions demanding the Bharat Ratna for Manmohan Singh but welcomed if some states were doing so.

Manmohan Singh passed away on December 26 at the age of 92 and was cremated with full state honours at Nigambodh Ghat on Saturday in the presence of several dignitaries from across the country and abroad.