Bangalore: The Central Government announced the Padma Awards yesterday. Of these, maximum 8 Padma awards have been announced only for the BJP-ruled Karnataka state.
Senior BJP leader and former Chief Minister of Karnataka SM Krishna (90) has been awarded Padma Vibhushan for public service. He left the Congress and joined the BJP in 2017 and has not been given enough importance. Dissatisfied with the BJP, SM Krishna recently announced his withdrawal from active politics. In this case, he has been awarded Padma Vibhushan, the 2nd highest civilian award.
Similarly, BJP supporter and writer S.L. Bhairappa (92) has been awarded the Padma Bhushan for literary works. Khadar Valli Thudukula has been awarded the Padma Shri for his contribution to science and engineering, S. Subparaman for his work in archeology and drummer Munivengadappa for his contribution to music. Apart from this, Sudha Murthy, wife of Infosys Narayana Murthy, Shah Rashid Ahmed Qadri and Rani Machiah have also been awarded the Padma Shri for their social service.
Chief Minister Basavaraj Pomi welcomed the award of Padma awards to 8 people from Karnataka and thanked the central government. Writer SL Bhairappa thanked Modi for getting the Padma Bhushan award. As the Assembly elections are to be held in Karnataka in a few months, there has been criticism that 8 people have been announced with Padma awards with the intention of BJP winning the election there.
5 out of 8 Padma awardees are from Mysuru region. While the BJP is weak there, there has been a controversy that the award has been announced with the aim of getting the party’s reputation among the people by awarding 5 people in the area.
While 8 awards have been announced for BJP-ruled Karnataka, only 6 awards have been announced for BJP-ruled Tamil Nadu, 4 for Kerala and 3 for West Bengal. Due to this, states including Kerala are dissatisfied.
