Eight Achievers from K’taka get Padma Awards 2026; Shatavadhani R. Ganesh get Padma Bhushan
Bengaluru: The Padma Awards for 2026 were announced on Saturday, with eight achievers from Karnataka finding a place on the prestigious list this year.
Renowned scholar and multi-lingual exponent Shatavadhani R. Ganesh has been awarded the Padma Bhushan for his exceptional contribution to the field of art.
Apart from him, seven achievers from Karnataka have been selected for the Padma Shri award. They are:
Anke Gowda of Mandya for social service
S. G. Susheelamma for social service
Shashi Shekhar Vempati for contributions to literature
Dr. Suresh Hanagavadi for work in the field of medicine
T. T. Jagannathan for contributions to trade and industry
Shubha Venkatesha Iyengar for science and engineering
Prabhakar Basavaprabhu Kore for contributions to literature and education
About Padma Bhushan awardee Shatavadhani R. Ganesh
Shatavadhani R. Ganesh, a distinguished multi-lingual scholar, has been conferred the Padma Bhushan for his outstanding contribution to the arts. Born in 1962 in Kolar, he is the son of R. Shankaranarayana Iyer and Alamelamma.
He completed his primary and secondary education in Bengaluru, while his pre-university education was pursued in Gauribidanur. Ganesh holds a Mechanical Engineering degree from Visvesvaraya Technological University. He later earned an MSc in Materials Science and Metallurgy from the Indian Institute of Science and went on to complete a postgraduate degree in Sanskrit from the University of Mysore.
Hampi Kannada University honoured him with its first-ever D.Litt degree for his doctoral thesis titled “Avadhana Art in Kannada.” Ganesh has performed Avadhana in eight languages, including Sanskrit, Kannada and Telugu. His unique contribution, known as “Chitrakavya,” has been showcased through performances in the United States and several European countries.
He has authored scholarly works such as Shatavadhana Sharade and Shatavadhana Srividye, which explore this rare art form. A master of subjects including poetics, prosody, Vedanta, Upanishads, dharmashastra, Indian philosophy, history, culture, grammar and aesthetics, Ganesh has written over 12 Sanskrit plays, 16 Sanskrit poetry collections, eight Kannada poetry works, and three Kannada novels, besides translating six major works.
Ganesh presented his first Shatavadhana on December 15, 1991, at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan in Bengaluru. He went on to perform the first complete Kannada Shatavadhana between November 30 and December 2, 2012. On February 16, 2014, he marked a major milestone by presenting his 1,000th Avadhana performance in Bengaluru.
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Trouble ‘Miyas’ everywhere only then they will leave Assam: Himanta Biswa Sarma
Says “Himanta Biswa Sarma, BJP are openly against them, we are saying it openly
New Delhi: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday said that four to five lakh “Miya voters” would be removed from the electoral rolls in the state once the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter lists is carried out. He also made a series of controversial remarks openly targeting the Miya community, a term commonly used in Assam in a derogatory sense to refer to Bengali-speaking Muslims.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an official programme in Digboi in Tinsukia district, Sarma said it was his responsibility to create difficulties for the Miya community and claimed that both he and the BJP were “directly against Miyas”.
“Four to five lakh Miya votes will have to be deleted in Assam when the SIR happens,” Sarma said, adding that such voters “should ideally not be allowed to vote in Assam, but in Bangladesh”. He asserted that the government was ensuring that they would not be able to vote in the state.
The chief minister was responding to questions about notices issued to thousands of Bengali-speaking Muslims during the claims and objections phase of the ongoing Special Revision (SR) of electoral rolls in Assam. While the Election Commission is conducting SIR exercises in 12 states and Union Territories, Assam is currently undergoing an SR, which is usually meant for routine updates.
Calling the current SR “preliminary”, Sarma said that a full-fledged SIR in Assam would lead to large-scale deletion of Miya voters. He said he was unconcerned about criticism from opposition parties over the issue.
“Let the Congress abuse me as much as they want. My job is to make the Miya people suffer,” Sarma said. He claimed that complaints filed against members of the community were done on his instructions and that he had encouraged BJP workers to keep filing complaints.
“I have told people wherever possible they should fill Form 7 so that they have to run around a little and are troubled,” he said, adding that such actions were meant to send a message that “the Assamese people are still living”.
In remarks that drew further outrage, Sarma urged people to trouble members of the Miya community in everyday life, claiming that “only if they face troubles will they leave Assam”. He also accused the media of sympathising with the community and warned journalists against such coverage.
“So you all should also trouble, and you should not do news that sympathise with them. There will be love jihad in your own house.” He said.
The comments triggered reactions from opposition leaders. Raijor Dal president and MLA Akhil Gogoi said the people of Assam had not elected Sarma to keep one community under constant pressure. Congress leader Aman Wadud accused the chief minister of rendering the Constitution meaningless in the state, saying his remarks showed a complete disregard for constitutional values.
According to the draft electoral rolls published on December 27, Assam currently has 2.51 crore voters. Election officials said 4.78 lakh names were marked as deceased, 5.23 lakh as having shifted, and 53,619 duplicate entries were removed during the revision process. Authorities also claimed that verification had been completed for over 61 lakh households.
On January 25, six opposition parties the Congress, Raijor Dal, Assam Jatiya Parishad, CPI, CPI(M) and CPI(M-L) submitted a memorandum to the state’s chief electoral officer. They alleged widespread legal violations, political interference and selective targeting of genuine voters during the SR exercise, describing it as arbitrary, unlawful and unconstitutional.
