In 2022, 128 people from different fields have been conferred the Padma awards, which include Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan. This year, the number of Padma Shri awardees is 107, the number of Padma Bhushan awardees is 17 and 4 people have been honoured with the Padma Vibhushan award. There are 34 women on the awardees’ list, 10 people are from the category of NRI/PIO/OCI/Foreigners, and 13 people have been given the awards posthumously.
In the field of Public Affairs, Sri Kalyan Singh from Uttar Pradesh has received the Padma Vibhushan posthumously, Shri Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee from West Bengal and Ghulam Nabi Azad from Jammu and Kashmir have received the Padma Bhushan, and Shri Malji Bhai Desai from Gujarat is the recipient of Padma Shri.
Among the awardees, Ghulam Nabi Azad is the only person from Jammu and Kashmir. While many find him as a deserving candidate for this award, some are of the view that the award has been given to him out of political interest with a possible intent of creating a rift in the Congress party. When former West Bengal CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee rejected the Padma Bhushan conferred to him, senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, tweeted “He wants to be Azad, not Ghulam”, which seems to be a dig at Ghulam Nabi Azad.
On the contrary, senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal congratulated Ghulam Nabi Azad on Twitter and wrote “Ironic that the Congress doesn’t need his services when the nation recognises his contributions to public life”. This is on the background of Azad’s retirement in February 2021, from the position of Leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha. Veteran Congress leader Karan Singh congratulated Azad and slammed Ramesh’s remark ‘Azad no Ghulam’. Singh said that if a party leader receives an honour, others must appreciate him, and expressed his distress at the controversy over Ghulam Nabi Azad receiving the Padma award.
This goes on to say that Congress party members have diverging views over the conferment of Padma Bhushan to Ghulam Nabi Azad. However, what people think does not really matter because the fact remains that Ghulam Nabi Azad has been awarded the Padma Bhushan, which is among the highest civilian honours of India. His name has featured on the list of recipients of the Padma Awards 2022 and that’s an achievement worthy of praise. Here we give you a brief account of the life and work of this senior politician and Padma Bhushan awardee from Jammu and Kashmir, Ghulam Nabi Azad.
Ghulam Nabi Azad was born on March 7, 1949 in a village called Soti in the Doda district of Jammu and Kashmir. After completing schooling from his village, he moved to Jammu and earned a Bachelor’s of Science from G.G.M Science College. He then earned a Master’s degree in Zoology from the University of Kashmir in Srinagar.
In 1973, he worked as the secretary for the Block Congress Committee in Bhalessa. In 1980, he was appointed as the President of the All-India Youth Congress. In 1982, he took office as the Deputy Minister in charge of Law, Justice and Company Affairs Ministry. He was in-charge of Parliamentary Affairs and Civil Aviation ministries during the government of Narsimha Rao. He was elected to Rajya Sabha for two terms. In 2002, he was elected to the Rajya Sabha for the third term, during which he was the Union Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and the Minister of Urban Development. In November 2005, he took office as the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir. During Manmohan Singh’s government, he was the Health Minister of India. He worked on the expansion of the National Rural Health Mission and his ministry established a National Urban Health Mission. In 2009, he served the fourth term in Rajya Sabha as in-charge of the Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare.
In 2014, Ghulam Nabi Azad was appointed as the leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha and was re-elected to Rajya Sabha in 2015. In the same year, he received the best parliamentarian award. He was the leader of opposition till February 2021. He is a part of G23, a group of 23 Congress leaders who, in 2020, requested party-level reforms to Sonia Gandhi, in view of frequent failures at the Lok Sabha and state elections.
Ghulam Nabi Azad has also served as the 7th Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir. He is a poet and takes interest in flowers. He is said to have played a major role in creating the Tulip Garden in J&K, which is the Asia’s largest garden of the kind. He is known for his organizational skills and said to have very good negotiation skills. The people of Kashmir respect him for his honesty at work and effective leadership. In his party, he is regarded as the crisis manager and has been on the forefront in attacking the opposition. He is widely considered as the Congress member who can get back victory for his party.
Even at the age of 70+ years, he has the ability to attract masses and win hearts through his speeches. In the span of a fortnight in November-December 2021, he addressed 10 public meetings. He has never attacked prime BJP leaders like PM Modi and Amit Shah. When he joined the group of politicians who wrote a letter to Congress High Command asking for restructuring the party, he surprised many and there have been speculations that he may be wanting to form his new party. PM Modi in his farewell speech for Azad, had said that his doors would be open for him, which hints at his leaving the Congress. However, Azad has discarded such claims and maintained that he would continue to work with the Congress Party.
Azad is married to Shameem Dev Azad, a famous Kashmiri singer and they have two children; a son and a daughter. His family members and well-wishers are proud of his service to the nation. They are happy that his work has been recognized, and that he has been honoured with Padma Bhushan in 2022.
