History of declining Padma Awards; CPM's rare stance on VS Achuthanandan

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Communist Party Marxist (CPM) welcomed the posthumous Padma Vibhushan award conferred to former Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan. The party yesterday confirmed that they would stand with VS Achuthanandan's family's decision to accept the nation's honour.

Many erstwhile CPM leaders have in the past declined the Padma awards, citing that it was not the policy of CPM to entertain such awards. On Sunday, VA Arunkumar, son of the late Achuthanandan, welcomed the award and said that he was happy for the recognition.

The Padma awards were announced for eight Malayalis, including VS and Mammootty.

During the Narasimha Rao government, EMS Namboodiripad, the former chief minister of Kerala, was awarded the Padma Vibhushan. But the party and EMS declined the award. During the United Front government in 1996, there was a plan to give the Bharat Ratna to the then Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu. It was asked in advance whether he would accept the award. Basu and the party took a stand not to accept the award. Therefore, the announcement was not made.

During the United Front government, there was a proposal to award the Padma Vibhushan to CPM leader Harkishan Singh Surjit. Singh declined the award. In 2022, former Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya was awarded the Padma Bhushan. Likewise, Bhattacharya too declined the award, citing CPM policy. The party had made all these rejections on two grounds, namely that the public work of communists is not for awards and that communists should not accept honours given by the government. However, since it was a posthumous honour, there were indications the other day that the party may revise its previous stance on the honour received by VS.