Arnab Goswami, MS Dhoni And Gurmeet Ram Rahim Names Strike Down From The List Of Padma Awards.

The center cut shots the number of names of famous personalities from the list of Padam awards. The names turned down from the list includes famous TV journalist Arnab Goswami, the Indian Cricket Team Captain, MS Dhoni, controversial spiritual leader Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh and tabla maestro Zakir Hussain as reported by an English Daily.

Many prominent names were stroked down during the initial stages of awarding the second highest civilian award; the Padma Vibhushan includes the Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar and veteran BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi, the newspaper reported.

Officials told to an English Daily that the two were awarded under the “public affairs” category, which falls under the government’s discretion, but didn’t mention who nominated them.

Other names that were taken off from the list includes journalist, Arnab Goswami, Biju Janata Dal MP Baijayant Panda and music composer Anu Malik.

The Padma awards are expected to be conferred by the President at ceremonial functions held at Rashtrapati Bhavan later this year. The year, President Pranab Mukherjee approved names of 89 recipients of the awards which include seven Padma Vibhushan, seven Padma Bhushan and 75 Padma Shri awards.

The maximum nominations were received for the controversial chief of the Dera Sacha Sauda Gurmeet Ram Rahim who has starred in three movies, English Daily.

In the past, many actors and politicians have raised the authentication on the awards distribution. Famous Bollywood actor Anupam Kher had also questioned the awards list, in a tweet he said, “Awards in our country have become the mockery of our system. There is NO authenticity left in any of them. Be it films, National or now PADMA.” However, he changes his stance after getting awarded Padma Bhushan.

The search committee, set up to screen the nominations, comprised the cabinet secretary, secretary to the President, additional principal secretary to the prime minister, home secretary, actor Waheeda Rehman, journalist and MP Dr. Harivansh; political analyst S Gurumurthy; and, badminton player turned coach Pullela Gopichand among others, the English DSaily said.