India's first National Security Adviser and Principal Secretary to Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Brajesh Mishra, said on Tuesday that he had no idea the Manmohan Singh government had recommended him for a Padma award.
“I was not aware of this recommendation,” he said, reacting to The Hindu report, “Brajesh missed Padma award despite Manmohan government backing,” published on Monday.
Later in a written statement, he said that while he was “grateful to the Prime Minister and/or his office for recommending my name for a Padma award,” he would have declined the award had the recommendation gone through. Had he been consulted prior to the recommendation, he would have “requested that the recommendation should not be made,” Mr. Mishra said.
Mr. Mishra said that in 2004, neither he nor Mr. Vajpayee made any Padma recommendations after the deadline, “much less on the telephone.” He added, “If anyone else in the PMO of the time did so, it was without proper authorisation.”
