With trouble over the Padma honours returning to haunt this year, a minister has suggested restricting the number of awardees to 100 ever year.
It’s the controversy over a Padma award to NRI hotelier Sant Singh Chatwal and counter-insurgent Ghulam Mohammad Mir that has goaded the government to do some introspection and tighten the screening process.
Putting a cap on the number of awardees, feels the minister, would restore value to the awards and ensure proper screening of candidates.
The government announced 130 Padma awards this year and the home ministry has clarified that nothing was amiss in the award for Chatwal. But a section of the media is not about to let go of the story that has exposed networking and lobbying, even among the NRI community, behind the country’s top civilian honours.
