65th National Film Awards:Few awardees to boycott
New Delhi, April 3:At the dress rehearsal of the prestigious National Film Awards, a number of awardees expressed disappointment after they were informed that the President of India, Ram Nath Kovind would attend the prize distribution ceremony for only an hour which is scheduled to be held today evening at the Vigyan Bhavan. President Kovind will only hand out 11 awards within the that one hour.
This has upset the remaining awardees who are now contemplating the idea of skipping the ceremony altogether in lieu of the recent developments. The winners protested this development by highlighting the fact that last year, former President Pranab Mukherjee presented all the National Film Awards personally.
“In all the award ceremonies he has attended, he gives away major awards, and takes photographs with all awardees. That has been the standard practice, which has been conveyed to the organisers well in advance,” press secretary to the President,said Ashok Malik.
If sources are to be believed, a number of awardees led by a filmmaker refused to attend the 65th National Film Awards after being informed about the President Kovind’s schedule and plans. The Information and Broadcasting Minister, Smriti Irani had to personally pacify them.
“It was extremely disrespectful on the part of the organisers to treat the awardees this way. We were informed that we would receive the awards from the President himself, and we have brought our family members with us for the ceremony. But it was only this evening that we were told that only 11 awardees will receive them directly from the President,”
While there has been no confirmation if the group will attend the ceremony, however, they have expressed that their disappointment is not against the organisers but the President. As a result, they are not refusing the award, they just won’t attend the event and receive it.
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Delhi polls: AAP MP Sanjay Singh alleges BJP trying to get his wife's vote deleted
New Delhi: AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh on Sunday alleged that the BJP was trying to get his wife's name deleted from the voters list of the New Delhi Assembly constituency ahead of the polls in February.
Addressing a press conference, the senior AAP leader accompanied by his wife Anita Singh alleged that the BJP was trying to delete the names of Purvanchali people settled in Delhi.
Singh and his wife belong to eastern Uttar Pradesh. Purvanchalis are people from eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar settled in Delhi for decades, and form a significant chunk of voters in the city.
Singh claimed that two applications were filed on December 25 and 26 for deletion of his wife's name from the voters list of the New Delhi seat represented by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo Arvind Kejriwal.
He claimed that the BJP was trying to teach him a lesson for raising in the Rajya Sabha the issue of names of Purvanchali voters being deleted from the voters list in Delhi.
Earlier in the day, Kejriwal alleged that applications were filed for deletion of over 5,000 votes in New Delhi since mid December.
The BJP has alleged that the names of Rohingya and Bangladeshi people illegally staying in Delhi were added to the voters list at the AAP's behest.
The BJP has accused the AAP of helping the illegal immigrants with documents to use them as a vote bank in the elections.
