New Delhi: Senior Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader and former Kerala health minister K.K. Shailaja has declined the Ramon Magsaysay Award – one of Asia’s highest honours – with her party citing Ramon Magsaysay’s stance against communists.Shailaja herself told reporters in Kerala that she declined the award as she was not interested in receiving it in her individual capacity. The central committee member of the CPI(M) took the decision after consulting the party’s national leadership, it has been reported.On Sunday, several media outlets had reported that Shailaja refused to accept the award after consulting with the party. Reports said Shailaja was considered for her role as Kerala’s health minister from 2016 to 2021, in which the state fought two major disease outbreaks – that of the Nipah virus and COVID-19.“The NGOs may not be in favour of the communist ideology. And hence it was not right that I receive it as an individual because I was considered for something which was actually part of a collective effort. So, I decided not to accept the award. I thanked them and politely refused the award saying I was not interested in receiving it in an individual capacity,” Shailaja told reporters.Also watch: Kerala’s ‘Rockstar’ Health Minister K.K. Shailaja on Tackling COVID-19, Elections and MoreThe Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF) in 1957 established the Ramon Magsaysay Awards to honour the late President of the Philippines, who died in a plane crash in March 1957. The awards were given for contributions made by citizens of the Philippines and other Asian countries in government service, public service, international understanding, journalism and literature, and community leadership.The New Indian Express has reported quoted unnamed but “highly placed sources in the national capital” that the foundation first verified with Shailaja during an online interaction and later intimated her of the award, towards the end of July.Indians including filmmaker Satyajit Ray and cartoonist R.K. Laxman, former election commissioner T.N. Sheshan, singer M.S. Subbulakshmi, scientist M.S. Swaminathan, former Puducherry Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and human rights activist Bezwada Wilson are among past recipients. The latest Indian recipient of the award is journalist Ravish Kumar, who was named winner in 2019.CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said the award is in the name of Ramon Magsaysay who was once known for the brutal oppression of communists in the Philippines.Other Left leaders who spoke on the issue have claimed that Magsaysay was a staunch anti-communist who oversaw the defeat of Communists (Hukbalahap, a Communist guerrilla movement formed by the farmers of Central Luzon) in the Philippines in the 1950s.“…this award is in the name of Ramon Magsaysay who has the history of brutal oppression of the communists in the Philippines. So, for all these factors together, she politely refused it saying that she will be the first politician to get it,” Yechury said.Yechury, who met reporters in New Delhi, said the award was being given for the manner in which the public health issues have been managed in Kerala.“This is a collective effort of the LDF government and the Health Department in Kerala. So, this is not any individual effort,” Yechury said.He said the Magsaysay Award has not been given to any active politician so far and the central committee is the highest decision-making body of the party.(With PTI inputs)