#PadmaAwards4Bhakts: From Modi's guru to Sri Sri, has govt awarded cronies?
Modi govt has doled out Padma awards to its favourites
Bollywood figures like Anupam Kher, who defended the govt on intolerance, have been awarded
The politics
BJP leader Jagmohan, controversial former Governor of J&K, has been given Padma Vibhushan
Modi's guru Swami Dayanand Saraswati and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar of Art of Living have also been awarded.
A little over two months ago, Bollywood actor Anupam Kher led the March for India from India Gate to Rashtrapati Bhavan to protest against people who were flagging the rising intolerance in India. Kher will soon be heading to the Rashtrapati Bhavan again, for a very different purpose: to receive his Padma Bhushan award.
He has been nominated for the award by the very government he was defending through the March for India.
Now, it is no one's argument that Kher doesn't deserve the honour. He has acted in several memorable roles in his over three decades long acting career. Few can forget his award winning role in Saaransh (1984) or the lovable father he played in Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (1995).
Rewarded for March for India?
But given Kher's incessant attacks on the critics of the Narendra Modi government, it does seem that the government is rewarding a loyalist.
It is no coincidence that two other protagonists of the March for India -- film director Madhur Bhandarkar and folk singer Malini Awasthi - have both been given the Padma Shri this year.
However, Kher's case is particularly amusing as during the UPA government's tenure, he had called the Padma awards "a mockery of the system" with "NO authenticity".
Clearly with the change in government, Kher also seems to have changed his opinion about the awards.
Bhandarkar, like Kher, has been a steadfast supporter of Modi in the Bollywood community.
Another pro-Modi star to be awarded this year is actor Ajay Devgn.
Devgn has been an admirer of Modi even when the latter was the chief minister of Gujarat. The actor also campaigned for the BJP during the Bihar Assembly elections last year and apparently reason he cited was that he felt "inspired by Modi".
Another interesting awardee is singer Udit Narayan. Known for his melodious voice, Narayan was among the most popular singers in the 1990s.
More recently, he sang "Modi aane wala hai" a propaganda song for Modi's 2014 Lok Sabha campaign.
[YOUTUBE]http://youtu.be/RsRfuSzJ44c[/YOUTUBE]
Political considerations
Even though the awardees from Bollywood attracted the most attention, some of the other choices are no less controversial.
The most prominent is the Padma Vibhushan being conferred upon an overtly political figure like BJP leader Jagmohan, who was also Union Minister during the NDA's previous tenure.
3 awardees - Anupam Kher, Madhur Bhandarkar & Malini Awasthi - were part of the pro-govt March for India
Jagmohan also had an extremely controversial tenure as the Governor of Jammu and Kashmir and his reign is associated with atrocities and human rights violations in Kashmir.
But the list doesn't end here. Here's a look at some of the other awardees of political significance.
Ramoji Rao - Padma Vibhushan
Rao, a media baron from Andhra Pradesh, is known to be close to the Telugu Desam Party, presently an ally of the BJP. However, last year there were reports of his increasing closeness with the TDP's rival the YSR Congress.
Yarlagadda Lakshmi Prasad - Padma Bhushan
Prasad, a Telugu writer, was a Rajya Sabha MP from the TDP.
Dr. Barjinder Singh Hamdard - Padma Bhushan
The editor of Punjabi newspaper Daily Ajit, Hamdard is known to be close to Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal. He was earlier elected as an independent MP to the Rajya Sabha, with the Akali Dal's support. He is known to be a steadfast critic of Congress leader Captain Amarinder Singh, who will be the party's CM candidate in the Punjab Assembly elections next year.
Vinod Rai - Padma Bhushan
As the Comptroller and Auditor General, Rai was instrumental in bringing to light various cases of corruption during the UPA government: such as the 2-G scam, coal scam and the Commonwealth Games scam. While few can question Rai's credentials, it will give the Congress a chance to allege a bias in Rai's findings as CAG.
Robert Blackwill - Padma Bhushan
Blackwill was the US Ambassador to India during NDA's first tenure. He subsequently became an important lobbyist for India in the US.
Bhikhudhan Gadhvi - Padma Shri
No one will doubt that the veteran Gujarati folk tale artist deserves the honour. Some may even say that the award has come a bit too late. He was given the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for the year 2009. However, Gadhvi's hasn't been entirely apolitical. Last year, he inaugurated a massive Karyakarta Shivir of the RSS in Ahmadabad.
Santeshwara Bhyrappa - Padma Shri
The Kannada novelist is known for his pro-Hindutva writings. His novel Aavarana (2007) was a polemical work that listed what he called "Muslim atrocities against Hindus". Bhyrappa's ideological rival in Kannada literature was the late UR Ananthamurthy. The latter was incidentally a fierce critic of Modi, whom he called "a threat to Indian civilisation".
Dhirendra Nath Bezbaruah - Padma Shri
The senior journalist from Assam was for long the editor of The Sentinel. This isn't the first honour he has received from the BJP government. Last year, the government made him part of the Central Advisory Board on Education.
Kameshwar Brahma - Padma Shri
Brahma is the president of the Bodo Sahitya Sabha. The award can be seen in line with the BJP's efforts to reach out to the Bodo community ahead of the upcoming Assam elections. The party has recently entered into an alliance with BPF, the dominant political outfit among Bodos.
Piyush Pandey - Padma Shri
The adman was the brain behind the "Ab ki baar Modi Sarkar" campaign during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
Modi factor: Piyush Pandey was behind Ab ki baar Modi Sarkar. Udit Narayan sang Modi aane wala hai
Ashok Malik - Padma Shri
The journalist is known favourable to the BJP. Last year the government awarded journalists like Swapan Dasgupta, Rajat Sharma and Ram Bahadur Rai, all of whom are known to be pro-BJP. In 2003, the party had awarded another journalist Prabhu Chawla. The other journalist to be awarded this year is Indu Jain, chairperson of the Times Group.
However, the Congress hasn't been any different on this count. In 2005, it had awarded Shobhna Bhartia the Padma Shri and nominated her to the Rajya Sabha the very next year.
Jawaharlal Kaul - Padma Shri
He was appointed by the BJP government as the Vice-Chancellor of Garhwal University.
Religious leaders win big, yet again
Last year, the government had given awards to 8 religious leaders, 6 of them Hindu. This year too, gurus and godmen featured prominently in the list of awardees.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar - Padma Vibhushan
Though he claims to be apolitical, he played a key role in the agitations against the UPA government. Furthermore, his admiration for Narendra Modi is well known.
Sri Sri is a known admirer of Modi. He got Padma Bhushan last year and Padma Vibhushan this year
Watch this video in which he calls Modi a lion.
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89LfK7Qo1Nk&feature=youtu.be[/YOUTUBE]
Late Dayanand Saraswati - Padma Bhushan
Swami Dayanand Saraswati was Modi's spiritual guru. He died last September and Modi went to Rishikesh to meet him a little before his death. He was associated with the Chinmaya Mission.
Swami Tejomayananda - Padma Bhushan
Head of the Chinmaya Mission.
Madhu Pandit Dasa - Padma Shri
President of ISKCON, Bangalore
There are 3 individuals given the Padma Shri for their contribution to Yoga: HR Nagendra (Karnataka), Hui Lan Zhang (China) and Predrag Nikic (Serbia).
Of course, the Congress was no better It is said to have conferred Bharat Ratna on MG Ramachandran, aka MGR when it desperately needed an ally in Tamil Nadu. And few can forget how the UPA awarded controversial businessman Sant Singh Chatwal the Padma Bhushan in 2010.
When it comes to distributing favours, there is little difference between the Congress and the BJP. Perhaps Kher wasn't wrong in questioning the authenticity of the Padma awards. But his views would have been more authentic had he himself been unbiased.
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