President Droupadi Murmu presented three Padma Vibhushan, five Padma Bhushan and 47 Padma Shri awards for the year 2023 at the Civil Investiture Ceremony-II held at Rashtrapati Bhavan on April 5, 2023. Among the dignitaries present on the occasion were Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah.
Visuals of one of the awardee is making it to the headlines. The Bidri craft artist Shah Rasheed Ahmed Quadri praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for conferring him with the awards. In a viral video, he told Modi, “When your government came, I thought now the BJP government would not give me any award. But you have proved me wrong. I express my sincere gratitude to you”.
News agency ANI quoted his statement as “I tried for 10 years to get this award. When BJP govt came, I thought I will not get this award because BJP never gives anything to Muslims, but PM Modi proved me wrong by choosing me for this award”.
#WATCH | I tried for 10 years to get this award. When BJP govt came, I thought I will not get this award because BJP never gives anything to Muslims, but PM Modi proved me wrong by choosing me for this award: Shah Rasheed Ahmed Quadari, who received Padma Shri award today pic.twitter.com/H3XPTV9xYJ
— ANI (@ANI) April 5, 2023
Qadri hails from Karnataka.
After Qadri’s video went viral on the internet Congress questioned Qadri’s praise by calling it a “tortured statement”.
Reacting to the conversation between PM Modi and the Muslim artist from Karnataka, Congress’s Pramod Tiwari said, “To get an advantage in the Karnataka polls, they tutored Rasheed Quadri to make such a statement so that they get the sympathy of the Muslim voters. But it is not going to happen.”
While speaking with the media after Congress’s statement Qadri said, “I met the prime minister and spoke what I had in mind. I told him what I went through. During the Congress regime, I gave up my hope of getting a Padma Shri after repeatedly getting rejected for five years”.
