Padma award to US hotelier sparks outrage on social networking websites

'If Chatwal can, so can Kasab'<br/>

Padma award to US hotelier sparks outrage on social networking websites

The inclusion of US-based Indian hotelier Sant Singh Chatwal in the list of Padma awardees is generating a lot of heat on the social networking websites. Netizens have started raising question on why Chatwal was being given one of India's highest civilian honours.

Vetran journalist Vir Sanghvi twitted: "We should demand a more transparent system so that crooks don't get awards and the people of India are treated with respect."

He has started an online campaign on micro blogging site Twitter along with other eminent people. In his another tweet he mentions, "Very strange to give Padma Bhushan to a man who has been accused of defrauding Indian banks and jailed by our government."u00a0

Similarly, media personality Pritish Nandy has tweeted: " Shibu Soren, Madhu Koda, Quattrocchi, ND Tiwari missed out for Padma Awards. Next year. For sure."

In another tweet, he mentions: "Next year, if he can get to the right fixer, even Kasab might try for a Padma Award. If Chatwal can get it, so can he."

Not only eminent people but other users on social networking website have started discussing about the transparency in the process of choosing people for India's highest civilian honours.

Facebook user Sneha Ramchandran has written his status update as, "Padma award for Sant Singh Chatwal?!? Seriously what the hell is wrong with the system..Giving a prestigious award to a conman and a fraud.."

Similarly other users have questioned the panel that chose the winners. Ritesh Mishra has posted, "Sant Chatwal - a man alleged to have commited financial fraud gets Padma Bhushan..Thank You Manmohan Singh Jee."

Who is Sant Singh Chatwal?

The son of a small trader claiming to have been a former pilot in the Indian Navy, although no record of it exists with the Indian Navy, Chatwal migrated to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where in course of time he became the owner of two restaurants serving Indian cuisine. After the overthrow of Emperor Haile Selassie in 1975 and the confiscation of his assets, he left the country with some of his savings and opened a restaurant in Montreal, Canada, where he created a new cuisine based on a blend of French and Indian elements.

In 1979 Chatwal moved to New York, where he opened the first Bombay Palace restaurant. Gradually he expanded this into a chain, which today includes restaurants in Beverly Hills, Chicago, Denver, Miami, Houston, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. in the USA, and in Toronto, Vancouver, Bangkok, Budapest, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, London, Montreal and New Delhi outside the USA.

Chatwal is close to former US President Bill Clinton and his family, and has made substantial financial donations to his election campaigns, as well as to other causes and campaigns of the Democratic Party, with many of whose prominent representatives he is on good terms. He has accompanied the Clintons on several journeys to India, and is a Trustee of the William J. Clinton Foundation.

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