Deligne's work is certainly impressive and he deserves the prize.
However, it is a real pity that they have not even tried to bestow the Abel on Grothendieck [1].
Yes, he will certainly decline or even not answer but, honestly, they are missing the chance of saying 'hey, we really appreciate his work although he is not going to accept the price'.
Probably neither Deligne nor Atiyah nor so many people would have done what they have without Grothendieck's astounding contributions. But I digress.
He gave lectures on category theory in the forests surrounding Hanoi while the city was being bombed, to protest against the Vietnam War (The Life and Work of Alexander Grothendieck, American Mathematical Monthly, vol. 113, no. 9, footnote 6).
EDIT: That behaviour show what having a conscience means when you take it to the limit, which -to me- is really inspiring...
It is not only that. He left the IHES as a protest because it was partially founded by the NATO.
For non-specialists, the IHES is equivalent in 'scientific value' to any Insitute of your choice: Princeton, the Newton Institute, Max Planck, CERN... whatever. It is one of the few 'best of the best'.
He just left.
He became a recluse long ago, but that does not diminish his scientific merits.
in which they claim that it is policy of the Abel Foundation not to bestow the prize on people who would not attend the ceremony.
This strikes me as surprsing at the very least but you can never tell with foundations.
I am thinking in three centuries' time people will say: "Of course, they gave Grothendieck one of the first Abel prizes" and receiving a sorry answer "well, I say, no... it was a question of policy".
Kings are not kings if they do not survive someone rejecting their bounties.
However, it is a real pity that they have not even tried to bestow the Abel on Grothendieck [1].
Yes, he will certainly decline or even not answer but, honestly, they are missing the chance of saying 'hey, we really appreciate his work although he is not going to accept the price'.
Probably neither Deligne nor Atiyah nor so many people would have done what they have without Grothendieck's astounding contributions. But I digress.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Grothendieck