‘Spoke my mind’: Padma awardee Quadri amid row over his praise for PM Modi

Karnataka bidri craftsman Shah Rasheed Ahmed Quadri thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi after receiving Padma Shri on Wednesday and told him that PM Modi proved him wrong as he used to think that the BJP government will not reward a Muslim.

As this conversation triggered a row ahead of the Karnataka assembly election on May 10, Quadri said he was not tutored and he only spoke his mind. The controversy sparked off after Congress MP Pramod Tiwari, in an interview with India Today, said Quadri’s statement seems like ‘tutored’.

“I told him whatever was in my heart. I told him that I tried for the award during Congress time. When the BJP government came, I was upset and gave up trying. But he proved me wrong– this is what I told him. I never approached any individual politician. I used to work on my own and send my profile to the government. I never received any reply then but now they are replying and saying that I have been taught,” Qaudri said to television channels on Thursday.

“I am 68 years old. Am I a child that I can be tutored?” Quadri said adding that the award has no connection with the election as his name was announced as an awardee in January and the process must have started last year, he said.

“I have always voted for the Congress. But now I have a favour to return to the BJP government,” Quadri said to another news channel. He said he did not apply for the award and suddenly received the call on January 25. “I cried in happiness the whole day. I could not sleep…My father, who was a bidri craftsman, did not want me to pursue this art as an artist’s life is full of struggle,” Quadri said.

Congress’s Pramod Tiwari said getting a statement like this from the craftsman and publicising it proves that somewhere BJP has made a concerted effort to get some benefits in the election, which will not happen. “I congratulate him and believe that many people aspire for the award as their work is so exemplary but don’t get it. I would also say that had the UPA government been there in the 9 years, he might have got the award. But the statement seems tutored as many people must have given many statements but only this has been publicised by the BJP,” Pramod Tiwari said.

BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla said Pramod Tiwari’s statement is an insult to Karnataka and to Padma awardees. “Today the Awards have become People’s Padma but true to its character Congress parivar attacks these people , Karnataka’s culture & art. Will they sack Pramod Tewari? Or else people will respond in Karnataka,” the BJP leader said.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman too spoke on the issue in Bengaluru and said: “A rumour-based image has been imposed on the BJP for the past 20-25 years. PM Modi always says sabka saath, sabka vikas. We don’t follow vote bank politics.”