New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Social gathering (BJP) criticized the Congress after Sonia Gandhi awarded former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet the Indira Gandhi Award for Peace, Disarmament and Improvement, citing her previous criticisms of the Citizenship Modification Act (CAA) and the Jammu and Kashmir problem.
In 2019, Bachelet, then president of the UN Human Rights Council, commented on the restrictions on Jammu and Kashmir following the abrogation of Article 370, expressing deep concern in regards to the “influence of current actions by the Indian authorities on the human rights of Kashmiris.”
Bachelet filed an utility the next 12 months asking for amicus curiae to intervene within the case towards the CAA, which was then pending within the Supreme Courtroom. The Heart hit again saying, “No international political get together has a stand on any problem pertaining to India’s sovereignty.”
“Congress’s determination to award Michelle Bachelet the Indira Gandhi Peace Prize is as apparent as it’s anticipated,” BJP chief Amit Malviya wrote on X on Thursday, claiming that her tenure was “constructed on a distinctly anti-India, pro-Islamist rhetoric that’s fully in keeping with the worldwide left-liberal ecosystem. Not surprisingly, Congress rushed to congratulate her.”
The award was established in 1986 and is managed by the Indira Gandhi Memorial Belief, chaired by Sonia Gandhi. Different members of the Gandhi household similar to Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra are additionally members of the belief.
In the present day, we’re honored to say a couple of phrases in regards to the lifetime of one other extraordinary and inspirational chief whom we honor. Former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet witnessed loss, oppression, torture, and exile throughout her childhood. That is one thing value noting… pic.twitter.com/ZI8iRaR8kW
— Congress (@INCIndia) November 19, 2025
Bachelet turns into the thirty seventh recipient of the award. The award ceremony for Ms. Bachelet, a member of the Socialist Social gathering of Chile, praised her resolute efforts in tough circumstances for peace, gender equality, human rights, democracy and improvement, in addition to her contribution to India-Chile relations.
The primary recipient of the award in 1986 was Parliamentarians for International Motion, a world group made up of parliamentarians from numerous international locations, for its “persistent assist for nuclear disarmament.” It was introduced in 1986 to Mikhail Gorbachev, then Common Secretary of the Communist Social gathering of the Soviet Union, for his “imaginative and prescient of a nonviolent world freed from nuclear weapons.”
Over time, many, however not all, of the winners have been leaders who fall into the centre-left class. For instance, in 1997, the award was introduced to former US President Jimmy Carter for his achievements within the fields of disarmament and peace, and in 2013, former German Chancellor Angela Merkel obtained the award for her “exemplary management in Europe and the world throughout the monetary disaster, stewardship of Germany’s financial progress, and promotion of world financial stability.”
In 2007, the Invoice and Melinda Gates Basis obtained an award for its “pioneering and exemplary philanthropy around the globe and in India.”
Paradoxically, Bangladesh’s present chief of workers, Muhammad Yunus, and Sheikh Hasina, who was ousted as prime minister final 12 months and whose rise was the catalyst for Yunus’ rise, are additionally previous recipients of the award. Yunus obtained the award in 1998 for his contributions to the combat towards poverty as president of Grameen Financial institution.
Eleven years later, in 2009, Hasina was awarded the award for her contribution to “selling democracy and pluralism and resolute efforts to alleviate poverty.”
Heart-left leaders who’ve obtained the award embody Gro Harlem Brundtland, a member of the Norwegian Labor Social gathering and three-term prime minister, Sam Nujoma, former president of Namibia and anti-apartheid activist, and Lula da Silva, president of Brazil in 2010.
In the meantime, former Czech President Vaclav Havel, who performed a key function in overthrowing the communist regime within the former Czechoslovakia, obtained the award in 1993.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohamed ElBaradei, former Director-Common of the Worldwide Atomic Vitality Company (IAEA), obtained the award in 2008.
Along with people, establishments which have obtained this award embody Médecins Sans Frontières in 1996, ISRO in 2014, the Workplace of the United Nations Excessive Commissioner for Refugees, the Heart for Science and the Setting, and Pratham.
Former Nationwide Safety Adviser Shivshankar Menon, former Central Financial institution Governor Raghuram Rajan, former Planning Fee member Syeda Hameed, former Chief Intelligence Secretary Wajahat Habibullah, former journalist Suman Dubey, social activist Aruna Roy and former Chief Financial Adviser Kaushik Basu are the judges for the award.
The procedural guidelines guiding the jury say the award, which features a money prize of 10 million rupees together with a trophy fabricated from hematite jasper, the identical stone used to construct the Indira Gandhi Memorial, is awarded for functions similar to selling world peace, disarmament, racial equality and financial cooperation.
(Edited by Tony Lai)
Additionally learn: Was Rahul Gandhi’s voice of warning ignored? Inside Bihar’s Free Fall of Congress”
