New Delhi, Feb. 13 -- Recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award, to former prime ministers Charan Singh and P. V. Narasimha Rao and eminent agricultural scientist Dr. M. S. Swaminathan, all posthumously.

In the choice of these awards Modi has again shown political astuteness and statesmanship of a very high order. For the last so many years he has given Padma Awards to exemplary people who have done good work for the country.

I knew all three of them with different degrees of familiarity.

Choudhary Charan Singh

My father Jagdish Rajvanshi and Choudhary Charan Singh were in jail together during the 1942 Quit India movement. Later on our families became close friends. So quite a number...