The Prime Minister's Office headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee was forced to make last-minute amendments to the 2004 list of Padma awardees following objections raised by President Abdul Kalam in a letter to Mr. Vajpayee dated January 22, 2004.
This has come to light following the release of documents pertaining to that period by the current President's Secretariat. The documents — which were released in response to an appeal filed with the Central Information Commission (CIC) by RTI activist Subhash Chandra Agrawal — include Mr. Kalam's letter as well as file notings relating to action taken on the letter.
The Padma list was forwarded to Dr. Kalam for his approval on January 22, 2004 — three days before it was to be made public. The list went back to the PMO on the same day but accompanied by a note from Mr. Kalam.
In his note, Mr. Kalam insisted on three broad guidelines. First, there should be no adverse reports against the prospective Padma awardees from any of the investigation agencies/organisations. Second, no person can be selected for the award except on the recommendation of the Awards Committee. And third, no person should get a second Padma award within 10 years.
The documents show that the PMO, which had already finalised the names of the awardees, modified the list as advised by Mr. Kalam. Those unfavourably rated by the investigating agencies were dropped from the list. Also excluded were those who fell within the 10-year restriction for a second award.
However, Mr. Kalam's second condition proved problematic. This was because three among the prospective awardees had made it to the final list without approval by the Awards Committee. But since these were evidently important names, and there was no time to be lost, members of the Awards Committee hastily considered and approved their inclusion, “either by telephonic discussion or consultation in person by JS (MHA) [Joint Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs).”
The amended list reached the President on January 24. He approved it immediately.
Details deleted
Interesting as these details are, they do not tell the full story, because the President's Secretariat deleted some crucial details from the documents on the grounds that the RTI Act did not cover personal information and information provided by the investigating agencies. Thus while the documents show that Vajpayee's office dropped some names and took the extraordinary step of getting some other names approved by the Awards Committee, they do not reveal the names.
The President's Secretariat initially refused to part with the file notings on Mr. Kalam's letter, arguing before the CIC that inputs from agencies such as RAW and the IB were protected from scrutiny under the RTI Act. Further, releasing personal information would amount to invasion of privacy. It agreed to release selected portions after the CIC agreed that it could mask information it considered to be privileged.
