New Delhi, Apr 19: Pratap Singh Jadhav, editor of Marathi daily 'Pudhari', columnist and India-based French journalist Francois Gautier and Deepak Chaurasia, political editor of a private TV news channel, are among the recipients of this year's Nachiketa awards instituted by RSS mouthpiece 'Panchjanya', announced here today. The awardees were selected for their "Nationalist Journalism" at a meeting of the Panchjanya Nachiketa Pratishthan presided over by the weekly's first editor and Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on April 15, a release from the organisation said.

Jadhav has been selected for the highest Panchjanya Nachiketa award comprising Rs 1.5 lakh for his nationalist writings, it said, adding that the Kolhapur-based paper had set up a Rs three core hospital for the treatment of soldiers deployed on Siachen, after raising funds from its readers.

The meeting also selected Gautier for the B C Pal Award, former 'Navbharat Times' editor N K Trikha for the Deendayal Upadhyaya award and former Tarun Bharat editor Lakshman Trayambak Joshi for the Hanuman Prasad Poddar award, all of which carry Rs 51,000, a citation and an 'Uttareeya'.
Among the young talents, Chaurasia, Shankar Sharan (Star News), Ravindra Aggarwal (Dainik Jagran), Saurabh Shah (columnist with Gujarat Samachar) and Jagbandhu Mishra (Orissa weekly 'Rashtradeep') have been chosen for Nachiketa awards which comprise Rs 25,000 each, a citation and an 'Uttareeya'.

The awards would be presented by Vajpayee here on May 10 at a ceremony to be attended among others by deputy prime minister L K Advani and top RSS brass, it said.


Bureau Report