One non-eligible award is enough to dilute the value of every genuine honour.When
recognition becomes arranged, even excellence begins to look accidental..MUSHTAQ BALA
MUSHTAQ BALA
Awards are meant to inspire. They are symbols of excellence, integrity, and collective pride. Yet, when the credibility of an award is questioned—even once—it casts a long shadow not just on the undeserving recipient, but tragically, on the genuinely deserving ones as well. An award tainted by controversy does not merely fail its purpose; it erodes public trust and loses its moral sanity.
At the national level, controversies surrounding the Padma Awards have repeatedly surfaced, often framed through the prism of political rivalry between the BJP and the Congress. Allegations of political proximity, ideological alignment, or selective recognition have fuelled public debates year after year. While many Padma awardees are undeniably deserving, even a single non-eligible or questionable conferment is enough to make the entire list appear suspect. The damage is subtle but severe: admiration turns into hesitation, applause into polite silence.
This phenomenon is not confined to New Delhi.
Recent state-level awards in Jammu and Kashmir have also invited murmurs—some whispered, some spoken aloud—about opacity, favouritism, and inconsistent criteria. Once again, the real victims are not the critics but the genuine achievers, whose years of dedication risk being reduced to collateral damage in a credibility crisis they did not create.
What is deeply worrying is how this culture trickles downward, infecting districts, zones, and even schools.
The controversy surrounding the Republic Day celebrations in Pattan offers a revealing snapshot of this malaise. As articulated in a widely circulated Facebook post by educator Ms. Ishrat Tanki, the awards appeared “pre-determined,” favouring only government schools despite active and meaningful participation from private institutions. Months of effort by students, teachers, and parents were overshadowed by decisions perceived as biased and exclusionary.
Her concern goes beyond one event. It draws attention to administrative voids, particularly the absence of a Zonal Education Officer, and the dangers of decision-making being informally exercised by functionaries not mandated to do so. More crucially, it reminds us that children must never become collateral damage of bureaucratic negligence or institutional bias.
The tragedy of flawed awards is not that an undeserving individual is honoured. The greater tragedy is that honour itself gets diminished.
When students witness merit being sidelined, cynicism takes root early. When educators see fairness replaced by favour, motivation withers. When society begins to assume that awards are “managed,” excellence loses its incentive. From Padma Bhavan to a school auditorium, the message becomes disturbingly consistent: recognition is no longer earned—it is arranged.
The Reform Imperative: Restore Credibility or Retire the Applause
If awards are to survive as instruments of honour rather than ornaments of convenience, systemic reform is no longer optional—it is urgent. The credibility crisis surrounding awards, from Padma-level recognitions to school-stage certificates, demands one clear response: institutional transparency with zero discretionary ambiguity.
Every award—national, state, district, or school-level—must rest on publicly declared eligibility criteria, independent and diverse selection committees, and documented evaluation processes open to scrutiny. Political executives, bureaucratic intermediaries, and informal power centres must have no invisible hand in deciding who is honoured and who is ignored.
Most importantly, awards must be de-linked from optics, appeasement, and administrative convenience. Recognition should never be used to balance equations, reward proximity, silence criticism, or manufacture narratives. One flawed conferment is enough to contaminate an entire institution of honour—making even the most deserving recipients appear questionable.
At the grassroots level, particularly in education, the cost of unfair awards is generational. When children learn early that merit does not guarantee recognition, cynicism replaces aspiration. A society that teaches its youth to distrust applause is quietly training them to distrust institutions.
The question before policymakers, administrators, and selectors is stark and unavoidable:
Do we want awards that command respect—or ceremonies that merely distribute certificates?
If reforms are postponed, the public will eventually stop questioning awards—not because trust has been restored, but because belief has been abandoned. And the moment awards cease to inspire pride, they become hollow rituals—clapped for politely, remembered briefly, and respected never.
For a society aspiring toward fairness, excellence, and moral authority, restoring credibility in awards is not a symbolic gesture—it is a democratic necessity.
Kashmir Pen raises these questions not to diminish achievement, but to protect its meaning.
TICKER / STRAPLINE
From Padma politics to classroom certificates—how compromised recognition is eroding merit, trust, and the very idea of honour.
Mushtaq Bala is Editor-in-Chief of Kashmir Pen, an award-winning filmmaker, cultural commentator, and advocate for peace through narrative media.
