Kerala short-circuits Padma award selection

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Government has ignored Central Government’s directive to set up a special search committee to recommend persons for the Padma awards this year.

Instead a Cabinet sub-committee has made the recommendations. The committee is understood to have recommended Chairman of Gandhi Smaraka Nidhi P. Gopinathan for the Padma Bhushan. Dr. V. P. Gangadharan, P. Jayachandran, K. M. Roy, Chemmenchery Kunhiraman Nair and Preeja Sreedharan have been recommended for Padma Shri.

Advocate D. B. Binu said that recommendations are in violation of norms prescribed by the Centre and the directives of the Supreme Court. No search committee had been formed as directed by the Centre. Besides, there was also the Supreme Court directive in the Balaji Raghavan versus Union of India case (1995) that the final section was to be done by a special committee that may include the Chief Minister, Speaker of the Assembly, Leader of Opposition and Chief Justice of the High Court.

Mr. Binu recalled that the Cabinet had decided to reduce the number of persons recommended for the awards to five in view of large number of applications. However, this was later increased to 12.  In between, the Minister for Culture K. C. Joseph had issued an official release stating that none should approach the government with biodata.

The final list was drawn up by the committee with Mr. Joseph, Adoor Prakash, M. K. Muneer, P. J. Joseph and A. P. Anil Kumar as members.

Update: Mr. Joseph told the media on Monday that the list was prepared by the committee as per the guidelines and rules specified by the Central government. The government was not aware of any guidelines issued by the Supreme Court. Those recommended for Padma Shri were V. P. Gangadharan and M .I. Sahadulla (medicine), Kathakali artiste Chemancheri Kunhiraman Nair, playback singer P. Jayachandran and lyricist and director Haripad Sreekumaran Thampi (arts), Akkitham Achuthan Namboodiri (literature), P. U. Thomas (social service), Director, Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, P. Kunhikrishnan (science and technology), Preeja Sreedharan and Sunny Thomas (sports), Muraleedharan Kesavan (social work) and K. M. Roy (journalism).