When the state decides to honor its citizens with the highest award, the country and rest of the people should celebrate it. People who receive such honor should feel proud and the society should applaud such recognition. Whenever Bharat Ratna, India’s highest honor, is announced, there is celebration in India. America’s highest civilian awards are bestowed to individuals who enrich American lives in different ways. However, awards here at home have become a mere token to be given to those near and dear ones, to those who are close to power. This has not only eroded such honor’s credibility, it has relegated the recipients as party henchmen. When tainted individuals like disgraced former chief justice Gopal Parajuli and proven plagiarist Tirtha Khaniya, also vice-chancellor of Tribhuvan University, are given such honors, it raises deep questions about the kind of example our state is trying to set for future generations. How will children look up to these individuals? What are we to learn when the state awards those who should have been in jail for their wrong doings or those who have harmed the institutions through their questionable deeds? 

Moreover, bestowing country’s highest award to political luminaries like BP Koirala and Madan Bhandari only diminishes them. These departed souls are beyond such awards. They will be guiding light in our nation’s history for centuries to come. Our first elected Prime Minister and revolutionary BP Koirala does not need to be awarded today. It is almost an insult to his lifetime of sacrifices for freedom and democracy in this country. During the heydays of monarchy, loyalists and yes-men were awarded for their loyalty. These awards were means to advance their career inside the palace system. Sadly, such a practice is amplified even today in our young republic. Parties and leaders who are in power instantly grab the opportunity to award their people. This is not the kind of republic we imagined some years ago. 

This open misuse of state honors has continued for the last few years. Home Ministry makes the list of the persons to receive such awards based on party loyalty of the persons, instead of whether they have contributed for the wellbeing of the country. This act of dishonoring the very prestigious awards had to be stopped once and for all. The government of K P Oli should have taken the steps to set the right example for future governments. But it did not, which is why national medals have become the subject of controversy this year as well. Our political leadership has to show maturity and statesmanship when it comes to making decision on issues like state honors. When honors are distributed based on closeness to certain leaders and loyalty to a political party, it just becomes a continuation of what the Shah Kings practiced for decades. We chose the new system precisely to get rid of such a corrupt practice. Can we, as a state, rise above partisan politics and honor those individuals who have made great contributions to better our society? 

 
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