The Government had considered conferring a Padma award on S. Chinny Krishna, vice-chairman, Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) which moved the apex court against the decision to lift the ban on jallikattu. Mr. Krishna and 17 others were recommended by a ten-member search committee headed by the Cabinet secretary for the Padma series of awards. Of them, only three — Olympic medallist Sakshi Malik, gymnast Dipa Karmakar and musician Vishwa Mohan Bhatt made it to the final list.
The Home Ministry has made public the list of 18 names which were recommended by the committee. An official said Mr. Krishna’s name did not make it to the final list as he went against the government in the apex court. The state government had to bring in an ordinance to allow jallikattu.
Amitava Roy, the Supreme Court judge who was part of the bench which delivered the verdict convicting V.K. Sasikala in a disproportionate assets case was also considered for the awards. Actor Manoj Bajpai was also being considered but couldn’t make it to the final list.
This year the Padma Awards were conferred on 89 persons comprising seven Padma Vibhushan, seven Padma Bhushan and 75 Padma Shri awards.
While announcing the awards on the eve of Republic Day, a senior government official had said that this year the focus was on unsung heroes with special emphasis laid on recognising people who have rendered selfless service at grassroot level.
Percussionist and tabla maestro Zakir Hussain was also in the reckoning.
The Padma series of awards are conferred by the President of India at ceremonial functions which are held at Rashtrapati Bhawan.
The government constitutes a search committee, which screens the nominations and a final list is prepared with the Prime Minister’s consent. This year the search committee comprised the Cabinet Secretary, Home Secretary, Secretary to the President, Additional Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, actor Waheeda Rehman, Dr. Harivansh, political and economic commentator S. Gurumurthy, Pullela Gopichand, A. Surya Prakash and Hari Gautam.
The others who were considered by the committee were — Shyam Narayan Tandon, Omprakash Tiwari, N. Sathyamurthy, Ramaiah Shanmuga Sundar, Santosh Kumar Rungta, Usha Punjabi, Prabha Dattatreya Atre, Bharti Shivaji, Rajkumar Singhajit Singh, Usha Ganguli and Suman Kalyanpur.
