Bharat Ratna for our commandos and cops?

Every year, a raging debate precedes the decision to award the Bharat Ratna. As I understand, the award should go to someone who is “a jewel of India”. The events of the past 60 hours prove that our armed forces and cops qualify. In spite of the huge odds against them and the various challenges (hostages, risk of collateral damage, heritage sites, inadequate information about the hotel layout, no robust estimate of the number of terrorists etc.) they have demonstrated to the world that “Yes, we can”. I therefore think awarding them the Bharat Ratna would not be unfair. To be sure, technical issues such as it being India’s highest civilian award (and therefore it being inappropriate to award it to the army) remain- but what we should recognize is the commitment of the entire force and not individuals. Clearly, this was a team effort, with local agencies like the City Fire Brigade also playing its part in resolving the crisis.