The Government on Monday rejected a proposal of awarding the Padma awards to a handful of famous personalities. This list includes the famous former captain of Indian Cricket team M.S. Dhoni, Journalist Arnab Goswami, tabla maestro Zakir Hussain and spiritual leader Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh and music composer Anu Malik. The officials gave no confirmation as to why their names were rejected.
According to the popular news daily, India Today, Sharad Pawar of congress, Murli Manohar Joshi of BJP who received the second highest civilian honor Padma Vibhushan were initially not nominated. The officials said that the two ministers were awarded Padma Vibhushan in the ‘public affairs’ category which comes under government, but made no mention as to who nominated them. These awards are conferred by the President at a ceremonial function in the Rashtrapati Bhawan by the end of this year.
The spiritual leader Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh received highest number of nominations but was rejected.
The committee consisted of Cabinet Secretary, the President’s Secretary, journalist MP Dr. Harivansh, badminton player and coach Pullela Gopichand, political analyst S. Gurumurthy among others.
