GUWAHATI: Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar on Tuesday claimed that Padma awards were driven by “patronage and event management” at one point in time, but the process has seen “transformational changes” now.

Delivering his speech during a function to confer Assam’s top civilian awards here, Dhankhar said the state recognitions to 22 personalities have been done in a very transparent manner representing the variety of the society.

“We have seen in recent times that we have made transformational changes in Padma awards. Patronage was the driving force and event management was behind it at one point in time,” he added.

Dhankhar said that an award received due to patronage, friendship or even management is actually “not an award”.

Assam Governor Gulab Chand Kataria handed over the awards to 22 people from diverse fields.

The highest state civilian award ‘Assam Baibhav’ was given to Rajya Sabha member Ranjan Gogoi. The second highest award ‘Assam Saurabh’ was given to four persons, while the third highest ‘Assam Gaurav’ was received by 17 people.