An RTI application to the Union Home Ministry was rejected by its CPIO, stating the process is not yet completed. So, then, how were the Padma awards were given?
Contrary to the claims and commitments by Narendra Modi that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government will follow transparency in governance, here is a shocking revelation. According to a reply received under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, the BJP government gave away the coveted Padma Awards for 2015 even without completing the due scrutiny of the nominees. The previous Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, however, used to put the selection process on the website after the Republic Day, after a hue and cry from activists.
Delhi-based RTI activist Subhash Chandra Agrawal, who has been consistently monitoring the selection of Padma Awards over the past few years, through the transparency law, did the same for the 2015 Awards too. He filed an RTI application requesting information about the selection process of those who received Padma awards in 2015 from the Union Home Ministry. However, he was shocked, when the Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) of Home Ministry, replied stating that the “process is not yet completed” and hence the office was unable to provide information. If the selection process is not complete, then on what basis the awards were given away?
Agrawal is extremely disturbed as this is the first time that information has been denied, with the BJP rule. Earlier, the selection process used to be put on the website. He says, “It seems that present Union government is bent upon preventing transparency in its working as the Union Ministry for Home Affairs (MHA) shockingly and surprisingly deviated from its earlier practice to provide information on selection process of Padma awards just after announcement of Padma awards on eve of Republic Day (25th January) every year. The CPIO at MHA through a letter dated 27 February 2015 declined information on an RTI petition, which I filed on 27 January 2015.”
Interestingly, a similar RTI request, which Agrawal had made in 2014, received response from the MHA. “Besides,” the RTI crusader says, “following a communication from Central Information Commission, details of selection process was put on MHA website like it presently exists for Padma awards 2014.”
Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri (also Padmashree) are the second, third and fourth highest civilian award in India. Padma Awards are conferred in recognition of the awardees distinguished contribution in various spheres of activity including the arts, education, industry, literature, science, sports, medicine, social service and public affairs. The selection criteria for the Padma awards, however, has been heavily criticised as many highly deserving people have been left out in order to favour certain individuals. The Padma Award are given to nominees only after receiving clearances from intelligence agencies and regulators, like Intelligence Bureau (IB), Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), Central Excise Intelligence (CEI), Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).
With the appointment of Chief Information Commissioner (apart from three more Information Commissioner) pending for last more than six months, work at Central Information Commission (CIC) has come to almost at a standstill for petitions relating to most of public authorities including most important ones handled by Chief Information Commissioner. There is no chance of the appointments in near future and a sword is hanging for dismissal/ quitting of outsourced employees at CIC. Instead of a slow killing of RTI Act, the Union government can save funds by altogether repealing RTI Act rather than providing ‘non-information’ on RTI petitions like the one quoted above. Even the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) appears to have lost its reputation for being amongst the best public authority to respond to RTI petitions.
In his reply to Agrawal’s RTI application, the CPIO at MHA on 27 February 2015 replied, “Please refer to your application-dated 27.01.2015 under the Right to Information Act, 2005 received by the CPIO on 5.2.2015, seeking information about Padma Awards 2015. The process for Padma Awards 2015 has not yet been completed. Hence, no information can be provided at this stage.”
So, is the BJP government hoodwinking citizen by selecting Padma Awardees as per its whims and fancies? This is extremely disturbing.
Agrawal has gone in first appeal. Here’s the information sought by him…
- List of nominations reaching MHA by stipulated last date with names of those recommending nominations, authority through which MHA received nominations and dates on which nominations reached to (a) recommending authorities and (b) MHA mentioning also last date of receiving nominations at MHA
- Names of Search-Committee-Members'
- Names considered by 'Search-Committee'
- Names recommended by the 'Search-Committee'
- Names endorsed by Awards-Committee out of those recommended by 'Search-Committee'
- Days and time-duration on which 'Search-Committee' met to finalise nominations with minutes of meetings
- Names of recommendations reached to MHA after last date of receiving nominations
- Names of persons endorsed by Awards-Committee whose recommendations reached by stipulated last date
- Names of persons endorsed by Awards-Committee whose recommendations reached after stipulated last date
- Names of persons recommended by either of President, Vice President, Prime-Minister or Union Home Minister after stipulated last date
- Names of persons recommended by Awards-Committee itself mentioning name/s of Award-
Committee Member’s recommending such name/s - Names of persons endorsed by Awards-Committee which were recommended by either of President, Vice President, Prime-Minister or Union Home Minister or Awards-Committee itself after stipulated last date
- Complete information on any recommendation which were not recommended by either of President, Vice President, Prime-Minister or Union Home Minister but reached MHA after stipulated last date put before Awards-Committee
- Names of members of Awards-Committee mentioning 'Field-of-Eminence'
- Date on which set of recommendations were dispatched from MHA to Awards-Committee-
Members for their study/perusal before meeting of Awards-Committee - Days and time-duration on which Awards-Committee met to finalise nominations with minutes of meetings
- Names/ number of endorsed persons which were later rejected by tax, intelligence or other bodies after their names were endorsed by the Awards-Committee mentioning also name/s of authority rejecting such names
- Complete details on telephonic-confirmation sought from members of Awards-Committee on any recommendation for Padma-award
- List of names endorsed by Awards-Committee but not included in final list of awardees with complete information on not including such endorsed names in final list
- Names of Padma-awardees refusing to accept Padma-awards-2015
- Name of individual sending maximum number of recommendations
- Number of recommendations received from each of states/ministries
- Names of Padma-awardees in year 2015who were previously honoured with Padma-awards
- Complete information on objection received on name of some Padma-awardee-2015
- Calendar (dates) followed for different stages in selection/announcement of awards including date/s of receiving consent of probable awardees
- Complete information on briefing Union Home Secretary by officers prior to meeting of Awards-committee mentioning also names and designations of officers present in briefing, and minutes of meeting/file-noting of such meeting for briefing Union Home Secretary
- File-notings on movement of RTI-petition Shockingly and surprisingly learned CPIO vide reply No. 24/62/2015-Public dated 27.02.2015 declined information on the plea that process for Padma-awards 2015 is not yet been completed.
Rues Agrawal, “Learned CPIO did not take trouble to go through files of RTI responses on Padma-awards relating to earlier years when all such similar queries were responded on filing RTI petition immediately after announcement of Padma awards on eve of Republic Day.”
Agrawal has appealed to the First Appellate Authority (FAA) to direct the CPIO to provide point-wise response to each of the queries together with sought and related documents but now to be provided free-of-cost under section 7(6) of RTI Act. He has also appealed that all those details which were put on MHA website for Padma awards 2014, may also kindly be directed to be placed on MHA website in respect of Padma awards 2015.
Let us wait and watch.
| |
| | List of the Padma Awardees for 2015 | | | | This year, the government conferred the Padma Awards to 104 persons. It includes nine Padma Vibhushan, 20 Padma Bhushan and 75 Padma Shri Awardees. | | | Padma Vibhushan
1 LK Advani- Public Affairs- Gujarat
2 Amitabh Bachchan- Art- Maharashtra
3 Prakash Singh Badal- Public Affairs- Punjab
4 Dr D Veerendra Heggade- Social Work- Karnataka
5 Mohammad Yusuf Khan alias Dilip Kumar- Art- Maharashtra
6 Jagadguru Ramanandacharya Swami Rambhadracharya- Others- Uttar Pradesh
7 Prof Malur Ramaswamy Srinivasan- Science and Engineering- Tamil Nadu
8 Kottayan K. Venugopal- Public Affairs- Delhi
9 Karim Al Hussaini Aga Khan (Foreigner)- Trade and Industry- France/UK | | | Padma Bhushan
1 Jahnu Barua- Art- Assam
2 Dr Vijay Bhatkar- Science and Engineering- Maharashtra
3 Shri Swapan Dasgupta- Literature and Education- Delhi
4 Swami Satyamitranand Giri- Others- Uttar Pradesh
5 N Gopalaswami- Civil Service- Tamil Nadu
6 Dr Subhash C Kashyap- Public Affairs- Delhi
7 Dr (Pandit) Gokulotsavji Maharaj- Art- Madhya Pradesh
8 Dr Ambrish Mithal- Medicine - Delhi
9 Sudha Ragunathan- Art- Tamil Nadu
10 Shri Harish Salve- Public Affairs- Delhi
11 Dr Ashok Seth- Medicine- Delhi
12 Rajat Sharma- Literature and Education- Delhi
13 Satpal- Sports- Delhi
14 Shivakumara Swami- Others- Karnataka
15 Dr Kharag Singh Valdiya- Science and Engineering- Karnataka
16 Prof Manjul Bhargava (NRI/PIO)- Science and Engineering- USA
17 David Frawley (Vamadeva) (Foreigner)- Others- USA
18 Bill Gates (Foreigner)- Social Work- USA
19 Melinda Gates (Foreigner)- Social Work- USA
20 Saichiro Misumi (Foreigner)- Others- Japan | | | Padma Shri
1 Dr Manjula Anagani- Medicine- Telangana
2 S Arunan- Science and Engineering- Karnataka
3 Kanyakumari Avasarala- Art- Tamil Nadu
4 Dr Bettina Sharada Baumer- Literature and Education- Jammu and Kashmir
5 Naresh Bedi- Art- Delhi
6 Ashok Bhagat- Social Work- Jharkhand
7 Sanjay Leela Bhansali- Art- Maharashtra
8 Dr Lakshmi Nandan Bora- Literature and Education- Assam
9 Dr Gyan Chaturvedi- Literature and Education- Madhya Pradesh
10 Prof (Dr) Yogesh Kumar Chawla- Medicine- Chandigarh
11 Jayakumari Chikkala- Medicine- Delhi
12 Bibek Debroy- Literature and Education- Delhi
13 Dr Sarungbam Bimola Kumari Devi- Medicine- Manipur
14 Dr Ashok Gulati- Public Affairs- Delhi
15 Dr Randeep Guleria- Medicine- Delhi
16 Dr KP Haridas- Medicine- Kerala
17 Rahul Jain- Art- Delhi
18 Ravindra Jain- Art- Maharashtra
19 Dr Sunil Jogi- Literature and Education- Delhi
20 Prasoon Joshi- Art- Maharashtra
21 Dr Prafulla Kar- Art- Odisha
22 Saba Anjum- Sports- Chhattisgarh
23 Ushakiran Khan- Literature and Education- Bihar
24 Dr Rajesh Kotecha- Medicine- Rajasthan
25 Prof Alka Kriplani- Medicine Delhi
26 Dr Harsh Kumar- Medicine- Delhi
27 Narayana Purushothama Mallaya- Literature & Education- Kerala
28 Lambert Mascarenhas- Literature and Education- Goa
29 Dr Janak Palta McGilligan- Social Work- Madhya Pradesh
30 Veerendra Raj Mehta- Social Work- Delhi
31 Tarak Mehta- Art- Gujarat
32 Neil Herbert Nongkynrih (Art), Meghalaya
33 Chewang Norphel- Others- Jammu and Kashmir
34 TV Mohandas Pai- Trade and Industry- Karnataka
35 Dr Tejas Patel- Medicine- Gujarat
36 Jadav Molai Peyang- Others- Assam
37 Bimla Poddar- Others- Uttar Pradesh
38 Dr N Prabhakar- Science and Engg- Delhi
39 Dr Prahalada- Science and Engg- Maharashtra
40 Dr Narendra Prasad- Medicine- Bihar
41 Ram Bahadur Rai- Literature and Education- Delhi
42 Mithali Raj- Sports- Telangana
43 PV Rajaraman- Civil Service- Tamil Nadu
44 Prof JS Rajput- Literature and Education- Uttar Pradesh
45 Kota Srinivasa Rao- Art- Andhra Pradesh
46 Prof Bimal Roy- Literature and Education- West Bengal
47 Shekhar Sen- Art- Maharashtra
48- Gunvant Shah- Literature and Education- Gujarat
49 Brahmdev Sharma- Literature and Education- Delhi
50 Manu Sharma- Literature and Education- Uttar Pradesh
51 Prof Yog Raj Sharma- Medicine- Delhi
52 Vasant Shastri- Science and Engg- Karnataka
53 SK Shivkumar- Science and Engg- Karnataka
54 PV Sindhu- Sports- Telangana
55 Sardara Singh- Sports- Haryana
56 Arunima Sinha-Sports- Uttar Pradesh
57 Mahesh Raj Soni- Art- Rajasthan
58 Dr Nikhil Tandon- Medicine- Delhi
59 H Thegtse Rinpoche- Social Work- Arunachal Pradesh
60 Dr Hargovind Laxmishanker Trivedi- Medicine- Gujarat
61 Huang Baosheng- Others- China
62 Prof Jacques Blamont- Science and Engg- France
63 Late Syedna Mohammad Burhanuddin- Others- Maharashtra (Posthumous)
64 Jean-Claude Carriere- Literature and Education - France
65 Dr Nandrajan 'Raj' Chetty- Literature and Education- France
66 George L Hart- Others- USA
67 Jagat Guru Amrta Suryananda Maha Raja- Others- Portugal
68 Late Meetha Lal Mehta- Social Work- Rajasthan (Posthumous)
69 Tripti Mukherjee- Art- USA
70 Dr Dattatreyudu Nori- Medicine- USA
71 Dr Raghu Rama Pillarisetti (Medicine), USA
72 Dr Saumitra Rawat- Medicine- UK
73 Prof Annette Schmiedchen (Literature and Education), Germany
74 Late Pran Kumar Sharma alias Pran- Art- Delhi (Posthumous)
75 Late R Vasudevan- Civil Service- Tamil Nadu (Posthumous) | | |
|
| |
(
Vinita Deshmukh is consulting editor of Moneylife
, an RTI activist and convener of the Pune Metro Jagruti Abhiyaan. She is the recipient of prestigious awards like the Statesman Award for Rural Reporting which she won twice in 1998 and 2005 and the Chameli Devi Jain award for outstanding media person for her investigation series on Dow Chemicals. She co-authored the book “To The Last Bullet - The Inspiring Story of A Braveheart - Ashok Kamte” with Vinita Kamte and is the author of “The Mighty Fall”.)
Am sure that because of such exposures people would stop shortchanging our people and the people who really deserve to be rewarded.