M S Swaminathan's daughter welcomes decision to award Bharat Ratna to her father

Former WHO chief scientist Dr Soumya Swaminathan on Friday welcomed the governments decision to confer the Bharat Ratna upon her father and globally renowned plant geneticist M S Swaminathan and said her father would have been happy with the recognition but he never worked for awards.It was the farmers love that meant a lot to him, the former World Health Organisation Deputy Director told reporters here.I am sure that he would have also been happy if the news had come during his lifetime.

Former WHO chief scientist Dr Soumya Swaminathan on Friday welcomed the government's decision to confer the Bharat Ratna upon her father and globally renowned plant geneticist M S Swaminathan and said her father would have been happy with the recognition but he never worked for awards.

It was the farmers' love that meant a lot to him, the former World Health Organisation Deputy Director told reporters here.

''I am sure that he would have also been happy if the news had come during his lifetime. But he was never somebody who worked for awards or waited for recognition,'' she said when asked how her father would have reacted to the award.

Several awards came to him, but he was motivated more by the results of what he did on the ground and the people's love and affection, Dr Soumya Swaminathan said.

Asserting that she was ''proud and happy'', Swaminathan said: ''On behalf of the family, we are very thankful and happy that our father has received the Bharat Ratna posthumously.'' Noting that her father has been recognised for his lifetime of contributions to agriculture, but more importantly, for the welfare of farmers and the poorest and most vulnerable in the country, she said it was a matter of ''pride and satisfaction'' that her father's whole life's work has been ''recognised by the government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with the highest national award that any citizen of India can get''.

Speaking on the significance of the award for future generations, she said that the government's decision, apart from making her father's family, friends, students and well-wishers happy, ''will also send a very strong message to the youth of the country that you can use science and technology to benefit the society''.

She said that her father always used to remember the farmers he met wherever he went in India. Farmers would meet him and convey their gratitude and their love for him and that is what meant a lot to him. ''Of course, this is a different kind of recognition, so certainly it would have made him very very happy,'' she said.

Earlier announcing the government's decision, Prime Minister Modi said M S Swaminathan made monumental contributions to the country in agriculture and farmers' welfare. He played a pivotal role in helping India achieve self-reliance in agriculture and made outstanding efforts in modernising it, the prime minister said.

Swaminathan, who died last year on September 28 at age 98, is most widely known for transforming India from a drought-stricken country dependent on the United States for foodgrain imports in the 1960s to being declared self-sufficient in food production in 1971.

His efforts involved introducing high-yielding genetic varieties of rice and wheat in India and the subcontinent, alongside American agronomist Norman Borlaug. Swaminathan was awarded the first World Food Prize in 1987 for his work.