Veteran trade unionist and senior RSS leader Dattopant Thengdi has returned his Padma Vibhushan to the government.
In a letter to the President of India, dated 28 January, Thengdi, who is founder-member of the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), the Kisan Sangh, the Swadeshi Jagaran Manch and the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, is reported to have said that it would be inappropriate for him to accept the second highest civilian recognition given by the government of India, till the two best known leaders of the Hindu nationalist movement, Dr Hedgewar and Golwalkar, were given the Bharat Ratna.
Thengdi will be the second awardee to return his award this year. Earlier, veteran Gandhian Siddhraj Dhadda had also told the government he could not accept an award given by a government as committed to globalisation as this one.
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"I am not writing to you in a spirit of arrogance. I feel humbled at the thought that such an honour should have been conferred upon me. However, there are others who must be recognised before I am," he is reported to have written in his letter.
Thengdi had been sounded for the award and even then had told government emissaries that he was not important enough to deserve such an honour.
But the government had pressed it on him, apparently in the belief that he would not refuse it.
Soon after the award was announced, messages had poured in from RSS workers all over the country that Thengdi should not accept it because it meant rewarding a contribution to India. The debate deepened after Dhadda's action.
There is a subtext to the move that only Sangh insiders know. Years ago, in recognition of his political and organisational abilities, Thengdi was to have been