President Ramnath Kovind is reportedly upset with the Information & Broadcasting ministry over the mishandling of National Awards that courted a major controversy. In regard to this, the Rashtrapati Bhavan (RB) said to have written to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) expressing its displeasure at the manner in which the office of the President was dragged into a controversy over the National Awards.
It can be noted that over 60 national award winners ‘boycotted’ the awards ceremony citing ‘disappointment’ and ‘dejection’. The root cause of this was that the awardees were informed only one day before the event. It was only on Wednesday, at the rehearsal the awardees were conveyed that the President would give away only a select few awards – 11 of the 70 categories and the rest would be given by Minister Smriti Irani and her colleague Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore.
Expressing shock over this unprecedented incident, sources close to the Rashtrapati Bhavan made it clear that it had informed I&B ministry weeks in advance. But the information to winners was only given a day before the awards presentation. Apparently, Rashtrapati Bhavan expressed its disappointment over I&B ministry and their mismanagement of the awards ceremony.
And the problem arose with I&B ministry’s miscommunication at the first place, felt sources close to Rashtrapati Bhavan. I&B ministry had sent invites to award winners and the invite had indicated that President would give all awards that wasn’t true.
Meanwhile, I&B ministry and PMO are quiet over the issue.