Rajiv Award no more,yet Govt cites it as Chatwals credentials

In its defence of a Padma Bhushan for Sant Singh Chatwal,the Home Ministry cited that he had even been honoured with the Rajiv Gandhi Award in 2005.

In its defence of a Padma Bhushan for Sant Singh Chatwal,the Home Ministry cited that he had even been honoured with the Rajiv Gandhi Award in 2005. But this reference to the late Prime Minister in the Chatwal controversy has not gone down well with the Congress leadership which has pointed out that the award has been discontinued.

Congress sources said Priyanka Vadra intervened recently to get the Rajiv Gandhi Awards discontinued since the party had nothing to do with it. The sources said the party also had no connection whatsoever with Chatwal and it was purely a government decision to award him the Padma Bhushan.

There is growing unease within the Congress over the Padma award for the tainted Chatwal. On Tuesday,AICC spokesman Shakeel Ahmed had sought to distance the party from the decision: This award should be given to people who enhance its prestige and not to those with a taint. As for the specific case of Chatwal,it is for the government to decide. Only the government can explain.

The sources said Priyanka,in a letter to Charan Singh Sapra who had initiated the Rajiv Gandhi Awards in 1995,asked him not to use her fathers name in the awards.

Asked about her letter,Sapra,who is Mumbai Congress vice-president and a member of the state legislative council,told The Indian Express on phone: There is nothing much to be said about it. I cannot say what contents it Priyankas letter had. I have already explained to her. We have decided to discontinue the awards. He said there was no plan to revive it later.

Since 1996,the Rajiv Gandhi Awards have been conferred on leading personalities from different fields,including Mukesh Ambani,Adi Godrej,Kumar Mangalam Birla,Sunil Mittal,M F Hussain,Mahendra Kapoor,Naushad Ali,Shekhar Gupta,Vineet Jain,Sachin Tendulkar,Kapil Dev,Sam Pitroda,Ramesh Chandra Agrawal,Vir Sanghvi,Venugpal Dhoot,Rajdeep Sardesai,Harsha Bhogle,Sunita Williams,Anna Hazare,Abhinav Bindra,Sania Mirza,Shah Rukh Khan and Aishwarya Rai.

In its press release on Wednesday,the Ministry of Home Affairs had sought to justify the Padma Bhushan to Chatwal,citing different awards and honours given to him in the past. Shri Chatwal is a recipient of the Rajiv Gandhi Award 2005. He was honoured by the National Jewish Outreach Programme in New York in 2001 and with the Order of the Khalsa by the Government of Punjab in 1999, said the Ministry.

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Congress sources said that the leadership was hurt by this reference to Rajiv Gandhi in connection with Chatwal who had been chargesheeted by the CBI for alleged financial irregularities. It is not right to drag in Rajivjis name with Chatwal. The former Prime Ministers name was being used with the award without any authorisation. The party has no connection whatsoever with Chatwal, said a senior Congress leader.