S M Krishna says he is "too humbled", dedicates Padma Vibhushan to people of Karnataka
Bengaluru(PTI): Veteran politician and former Karnataka Chief Minister S M Krishna, who has been conferred with the Padma Vibhushan, the second-highest civilian award of the country, on Thursday said he will dedicate the award to the people of the state, who have nurtured him for six decades.
Thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the 90-year old leader, who has been given the award in the 'Public Affairs' category said, he is " too humbled" to accept the award.
"My parents will be pleased and happy for that the honourable Prime Minister and Home Minister have thought it fit to confer this prestigious distinction on me. I'm grateful to the government of India and I'm also grateful to the people of Karnataka," Krishna said.
He said, he will dedicate the award to the people of Karnataka, who have nurtured him in the last six decades.
"I was least expecting anything, this is something which has been blessed, and I'm too humbled to accept this," he added.
Krishna, who was with the BJP until recently, had earlier this month said that he was retiring from active politics, citing his age as the reason.
He was the 16th Chief Minister of Karnataka, from October 11, 1999, to May 28, 2004 (from Congress). He had served as Governor of Maharashtra and was the External Affairs Minister during the Manmohan Singh-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government from 2009 to 2012.
A law graduate, he studied in the United States graduating from the Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, and The George Washington University Law School in Washington DC, where he was a Fulbright Scholar.
Krishna started his career in electoral politics in 1962 by winning the Maddur Assembly seat as an independent by defeating Congress' KV Shankar Gowda. He was then associated with the Praja Socialist Party before joining Congress.
Krishna had served as the Speaker of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly from December 1989 to January 1993. He was also a member of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha at various times from 1971 to 2014.
He was a member of both Karnataka Assembly and Council, and also had served as Deputy Chief Minister (1993 to 1994), and was Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president ahead of the 1999 Assembly polls in which the party won and he became the Chief Minister.
Krishna is credited by many for putting Bengaluru on the global map, as a fillip given to the IT sector during his tenure has resulted in the city growing as India's Silicon Valley'. He had joined the BJP in March 2017, ending his nearly 50- year-long association with the Congress.
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We had to hide him, he's his own enemy: MCA dismisses Shaw's outburst over Vijay Hazare Trophy snub
Mumbai, Dec 20: The Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) has brushed aside Prithvi Shaw's emotional outburst after his exclusion from the Vijay Hazare Trophy squad, asserting that the temperamental batter has flouted disciplinary norms regularly and is "his own enemy".
A senior official of the MCA, while talking to PTI, claimed that the side was at times "forced to hide" him on the field due to his poor fitness, discipline and attitude.
Shaw had expressed his frustration at not being picked in the 16-member squad for the Vijay Hazare Trophy in a viral social media post some days ago after being a part of the side's title-winning Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy campaign.
"In the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, we were playing with 10 fielders as we were forced to hide Prithvi Shaw. The ball would pass near him and he would barely be able to get to it," the official said on conditions of anonymity.
"Even while batting, we could see he was troubled reaching to the ball. His fitness, discipline and attitude are poor and it is pretty simple, there cannot be different rules for different players," he claimed.
"Even the seniors in the team have started complaining about his attitude now," he added.
During the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, Shaw missed training sessions regularly after showing up at the team hotel at "six in the morning" being out for most of the night.
Shaw, who has attracted a lot of attention for his off-field activities and not doing his talent justice by focussing on his game, would not get any favour from such social media posts, the official said.
"You would be wrong to think such posts on social media would have any impact on the Mumbai selectors and the MCA," he added.
Shaw's teammate and Mumbai captain Shreyas Iyer too had issued a stern statement on the night Mumbai defeated Madhya Pradesh in the final to win the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.
"He needs to get his work ethics right. And if he does that, (the) sky's the limit for him," Iyer told reporters in Bengaluru.
"We can't babysit anyone, right? He has played so much of cricket. Everyone has given him inputs. At the end of the day, it's his job to figure out things for himself. And he has also done it in the past. It's not that he hasn't," he added.
Shaw was earlier left out of Mumbai's Ranji Trophy squad for similar reasons in October after which he was given a specific fitness program to work on at the MCA Academy.
"He is not following that as well properly," the official said.
Shaw broke into the scene amid a lot of hype, making his Test debut in 2018 as an 18-year-old in a home series against the West Indies.
His lone century in the format was on that exciting debut but since then, he has appeared in just four more Tests, the last of these being against Australia four years ago.
His ODI and T20 International career has also failed to take off and he hasn't played any white-ball cricket for India since 2021. These are markedly underwhelming statistics for a player, who was touted as the next big thing in Indian cricket just a few years ago.
Several former players have expressed their concern about his antics and attitude both on and off the field. A recent low for him was failing to find any takers in the IPL auction despite coming in with a relatively low base price of Rs 75 lakh.
"I'll tell you one thing. No one is Shaw's enemy. He is his own enemy," the MCA official stated, voicing the frustration that the cricket fraternity in India has felt over him not living up to the early promise.
