'Chatwal was not on original Padma list'

The tale of how Sant Singh Chatwal, US hotelier, Democrat sympathiser and widely considered an arriviste by Delhi’s social circle, was awarded the Padma Bhushan, got curiouser and curiouser.

Though the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) issued a robust contradiction of news reports that Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) cases were pending against Chatwal, two important journalists said they had information that Chatwal’s name was not on the original list of awardees and wondered “who put him there and why”. They vowed to put in a Right to Information (RTI) application to find out how Chatwal was given the Padma Bhushan.

 

Following an outcry from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and civil society about reports that Chatwal had connived with some officials to defraud the Bank of Baroda and Bank of India and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had filed cases against him between 1992 and 1994, the MHA said: “Three of these cases were closed by CBI itself while charge sheets were filed by the CBI in two cases before the Court of Special Judge, CBI, Mumbai. In these two cases also, the Court discharged Chatwal. As per available reports, there is nothing adverse on record against Chatwal”.

Defending the government’s decision to bestow a state honour on Chatwal, MHA, in a press release, said: “Sant Singh Chatwal is a tireless advocate of India’s interests in USA and has been working relentlessly for strengthening bilateral relationships between India and the United States. ... Chatwal has distinguished himself in the hospitality sector and been an active member of the NRI community in the USA in securing support for the nuclear deal among the members of the Congress of the United States. He 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”.

But media personalities Vir Sanghvi and Pritish Nandy said this would not wash. They said they will file a joint Right to Information application about how Chatwal’s name actually figured in the list of Padma Bhushan awardees. “Pritish Nandy and I will draft the RTI application on Padma Awards today. Will keep you posted on developments,” said Sanghvi on Twitter. Sanghvi said: “If Chatwal has any grace, he should voluntarily give up the award to avoid embarrassing his pals in the government. BJP, Congress, media, Twitter Universe, all shocked by award. But government unrelenting. Is this accountability? Home min says, off the record, that Chatwal was not on original Padma list. So, who put him in and why?”

Nandy believes Chatwal has no serious clout to influence the US-India nuclear deal “He only hangs around the US power elite,” he said.

This is not the first time the Padma awards have been involved in controversy.

During the Atal Bihari Vajpayee regime, the issue of inclusion (and non-inclusion) of persons in the state honours list went up to the Supreme Court which laid down a new procedure: that a committee of eminent persons decide on the list of awardees, from which the Prime Minister could only delete names, not add any more.

The committee that decided the list of Padma awardees for 2009-10 comprised the cabinet secretary, the home secretary, principal secretary to the PM, and four outside arbiters: Former CII mentor Tarun Das, art historian Kapila Vatsyayan, nuclear expert R Chidambaram and actor-director Girish Karnad. The members of this committee are nominated by the Prime Minister every year.

As no written records are maintained of the deliberations of the Padma awards committee, it is hard to see what an RTI application will reveal although it could indicate at what stage Chatwal's name was introduced.

Informing the Lok Sabha of the procedure for granting the awards, Minister of State for Home, Mullapally Ramachandran told the Lok Sabha in a written reply in 2005: “As per time-honoured practice, no written record is either created or maintained of the various deliberations of the Awards committee while considering agenda papers. The committee only makes final recommendations of the names shortlisted for the awards. These are submitted on file for approval of the competent authority,” he said.