That might very well be an exaggeration. But the critics would feel vindicated after going through the Padma awards announced by the UPA Government on the Republic Day eve on Friday. If you are a Delhiite, you stand a better chance of being nominated to receive one of the three Padma awards.

That is the advantage of being close to the country’s power centre.

One may extend this logic and believe that being a resident of a neighbouring state like Haryana or Uttar Pradesh or even Rajasthan could be the second best option to stand a chance to get one of the three Padma awards. Facts, however, point the contrary. It doesn’t mean that a resident of a distant state, say Andhra Pradesh or Gujarat, would be recognised to bestow a Padma award. But distance is seemingly not the issue if a contender based as far as in the United States.

Consider these: five of the thirteen Padma Vibhushan awardees are based in Delhi. That is a whopping 38 per cent share.

Likewise, 13 of the 35 (37 per cent) Padma Bhushan awardees too are Delhiites. Almost 25 per cent of the 71 Padma Shree awardees too reside in the national capital. Hardly anyone from neighbouring Haryana or Rajasthan was lucky enough to get any of the three awards.

Maharashtra is a poor second. But the state should thank that it has the advantage of having Mumbai, the country’s financial capital. Three awards each in the Padma Vibhushan and Padma Bhushan awards have gone to Mumbaikars, while seven of the 71 Padma Shree awards have gone to Maharashtrians.

More foreigners
But foreign nationals and Indians based abroad have actually cornered more awards than those from Maharashtra.

In the Padma Vibhushan category, while Edmund Hillary was awarded one posthumously, another one has gone to UK-based non-resident Indian businessman L N Mittal.

But in the Padma Bhushan category nine awardees are either foreign nationals or NRIs, five of them based in the US. Eight Padma Shree awards went to foreign nationals or NRIs, three of them based in the US.

119 get Padma awards
Padma Vibhushan: Asha Bhosle (Art), Justice (Dr) A S Anand, P N Dhar, Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee (Public Affairs), Dr E Sreedharan and Dr Rajendra Kumar Pachauri (Science and Engineering), Late Edmund Hillary (posthumous), Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar and Viswanathan Anand (all three for Sports), Lakshmi Narayan Mittal, N R Narayana Murthy, P R S Oberoi and Ratan Naval Tata (Trade and Industry).
Padma Bhushan: Amarnath Sehgal (posthumous), Ustad Asad Ali Khan, P Susheela, Ustad Rahim Fahimuddin Dagar and Prof Sushil Kumar Saxena (all five for Art); Chandrashekhar Dasgupta, K Padmanabhiah and V Ramachandran (Civil Service); Prof  Brijinder Nath Goswamy, Prof Ji Xianlin (China), Prof Kaushik Basu (USA), Prof  (Smt) Padma Desai (USA), Ravindra Kelekar, Dr (Smt ) Shayama Chona, Shri Lal Shukla, Dr Srinivasa S R Varadhan, Prof T K Oommen and Prof (Dr) Jagjit Singh Chopra (Literature and Education); Prof Nirmal Kumar Ganguly (medicine) while Mian Bashir Ahmed, Lord Meghnad Desai and Late Yuli Mikhailovitch Vorontsov (posthumous) (all three for Public Affairs); Prof Asis Datta and Prof Sukh Dev (Science and engineering); Sunita Williams (astronautics); Vasant Gowarikar, D R Mehta, Dominique Lapierre (France) and Dr (Ms) Inderjit Kaur (Social work); Suresh Kumar Neotia, Baba Neelkanth Kalyani, K V Kamath, Shiv Nadar and Vikram Pandit (Trade and Industry).

Padma Shri: Gangadhar Pradhan, Mikhailovich Pechinkov (Russia), Pandit Gokulotsavji Maharaj, Hans Raj Hans, Dr (Smt) Helen Giri, Jatin Goswami, Jawahar Wattal, John Martin Nelson, Jonnalagadda Gurappa Chetty, Kekoo M Gandhy, Madhuri Dixit, Mangala Prasad Mohanty, Manoj Night Shyamalan, Meenakshi Chitharanjan, Moozhikkulam Kochukuttan Chakyar, P K Narayanan Nambiar, Pratap Pawar (UK), Sabitri Heisnam, Sentila T Yanger, Dr Sirkazhi G Sivachidambaram, Tom Alter and Prof Yella Venkateswara Rao (Art); Barkha Dutt, Rajdeep Dilip Sardesai and Vinod Dua (Journalism); Prof Amitabh Mattoo, Balasubramanian Sivanthi Adithan, Bholabhai Patel, Dr (Smt) Bina Agarwal, Prof (Dr) K S Nisar Ahmed, Dr (Smt) M Leelavathy, Dr Nirupam Bajpai, Dr Srinivas Udgata, Prof Sukhadeo Thorat, Shri Surya Kanta Hazarika, Dr Vellayani Arjunan and Mohammad Yousuf Taing (Literature and Education); Haji Kaleem Ullah Khan (Mango Plantation and Grafting); Dr A Jayanta Kumar Singh, Prof (Dr) Arjunan Rajasekaran, Prof (Dr) C U Velmurugendran, Dr Deepak Sehgal, Prof (Dr) Dinesh K Bhargava, Dr Indu Bhushan Sinha, Dr Keiki R Mehta, Dr (Smt) Malvika Sabharwal, Dr Mohan Chandra Pant, Dr Rakesh Kumar Jain, Dr Raman Kapur, Dr Randhir Sud, Dr Shyam Narayan Arya, Prof (Dr) Surendra Singh Yadav, Dr Tatyarao Pundlikrao Lahane and Dr Tony Fernandez (Medicine); Colette Mathur (Switzerland) (Public Affairs); Bhavarlal Hiralal Jain, Dr Joseph H Hulse (Canada), Prof Kasturi Lal Chopra and Dr Sant Singh Virmani (USA) (Science and Engineering); Kailash Chandra Agrawal, Sr Karuna Mary Braganza, Dr (Smt) Kshama Metre, Dr Kutikuppala Surya Rao, Madan Mohan Sabharwal, Dr (Ms) Sheela Barthakur, V R Gowrishankar, Vikramjit Singh Sahney and Yousaf Ali Musaliamveettil Abdul Kader (UAE) (Social Work); Baichung Bhutia and Bula Chowdhury Chakraborty(Sports) and Dr Amit Mitra (Trade and Industry).