By Jose Kavi
New Delhi, Sept 5, 2022: A Marxist politician in a southern Indian state has declined the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award for 2022 reportedly under party pressure.
The Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation had selected K K Shailaja, former health minister of Kerala state, for the 64th Magsaysay award for her commitment and service towards ensuring an accessible public health system and effectively managing the Nipah and Covid-19 outbreaks in the state.
The award, a prestigious international honor, is regarded as the Asian equivalent of the Nobel Prize. It is named after Ramon Magsaysay, the seventh president of Philippines president, who died in a plane crash in March 1957.
If Shailaja had accepted the award, she would have become the first woman from Kerala to receive Magsaysay.
Under her tenure as the health minister, Kerala had won global recognition for its effective handling of the Nipah outbreak and the Covid pandemic.
The 65-year-old schoolteacher had hit national and international headlines for ably fighting the pandemic in a scientific manner.
Indian media reports said the Magsaysay foundation was to announce her name for the award by the end of August. The foundation had apparently cross-checked with a few independent people in India after she was nominated.
The reports said towards the end of July the foundation first verified with Shailaja during an online interaction and later informed her about the award.
The foundation then reportedly asked her to convey her willingness to accept the award, in writing.
Shailaja, who is a central committee member of the Marxist faction of the Communist Party of India, consulted the party leadership about the award. The leadership looked decided against her accepting the same.
The party stand was that Shailaja, as the health minister, was merely doing her duty entrusted to her by the party.
It also maintained that fighting the Nipah outbreak and the Covid pandemic was part of a collective movement. Therefore, it was not proper for her to accept the award in her individual capacity.
Another reason for refusing the award was that it was named after Magsaysay, who was known for putting down Communist guerrillas. The Indian Marxists maintain that accepting such an award would backfire in the long run.
Shailaja then told the foundation her inability to accept the award.
The annual award perpetuates Magsaysay’s example of integrity in governance, courageous service to the people, and pragmatic idealism within a democratic society. The prize was established in April 1957 by the trustees of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund based in New York City with the concurrence of the Philippine government.
The awards were initially given in six categories, five of which were discontinued in 2009. Government Service (1958–2008), Public Service (1958–2008), Community Leadership (1958–2008), Journalism, Literature, and Creative Communication Arts (1958–2008), Peace and International Understanding (1958–2008), Emergent Leadership (2001– ) and Uncategorized (2009– ).
Another person of heroic virtue is Arundhati Roy who donated her Booker Prize money to Medha Patkar’s Narmada Bachao Andolan. And Mother Teresa had asked the Nobel Committee to not have a gala dinner but donate that money to the poor instead. We should draw inspiration from such noble souls.
Some years ago social activist Dr Sandeep Pande had accepted the award but not the money as it was funded by an American corporation..