Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and former Defence Minister A.K.Antony on Friday blamed the Central government for the confusion at the 65th National Film Awards ceremony, which 55 of the 125 winners skipped, after coming to know President Ram Nath Kovind will present the award to only 11 winners.
"The president has been put into controversy by Union Minister Smriti Irani, as no valid explanation has come from the Centre on why the tradition has been broken. The protest what we saw is only natural and they (the recipients) only wished and wanted to receive it from the appropriate hands. Why this happened is because this is a game plan to silence those who stand against dictatorship," he said.
Antony, talking to media persons in Malappuram, said that the Central government should not have created this confusion.
"If the President was unable to hand over all the awards, the Centre should have intimated this well in advance. This controversy could have been avoided," he said.
From among the fairly big contingent of award winners from the Malayalam film industry, veteran playback singer K.J. Yesudas and director Jayaraj, after expressing their displeasure against this, went and collected their award.
--IANS
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