MUMBAI: Industrialist-philanthropist Ratan Tata was posthumously conferred the prestigious Mother Teresa Memorial Award for Social Justice 2024 by the Harmony Foundation at a ceremony held at a hotel in the city recently. The award, which celebrates and commemorates the legacy of Mother Teresa, is the only one endorsed by the Superior General of the Missionaries of Charity, Kolkata. The ceremony was graced by Justice K.
K. Tated, Chairperson of the Maharashtra State Human Rights Commission, as the Chief Guest. Other Guests of Honour included M.
A. Sayeed, member of the Maharashtra State Human Rights Commission, and Radhika Rastogi, IAS, Principal Secretary of the Tourism and Cultural Affairs Department, Government of Maharashtra. Distinguished attendees also included filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt, actress Soni Razdan, and actor Denzil Smith.
During the award ceremony, Abraham Mathai, founder-chairman of the Harmony Foundation and former Vice-Chairman of the Minorities Commission, highlighted the importance of the awards. He remarked, "With all due respect and admiration for the Nobel Laureates, has anyone realized that the Nobel Prize was instituted by Alfred Nobel as a gesture of utmost remorse and apology for the devastating destruction caused by his invention of dynamite and other high explosives?" Mathai contrasted this with the Mother Teresa Memorial Award, saying it honors the ethos of selflessness that Mother Teresa epitomized. He emphasized her legacy of pursuing social justic.