Nagma wins ‘Rajiv Gandhi Excellence Award 2019’

Nagma, an Indian socio-political activist and former actress bagged the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Excellence Award 2019, instituted by the Overseas Indian Cultural Congress (OICC) Kuwait, the overseas arm of the Indian National Congress.

Addressing a press conference yesterday accompanied by Kerala’s Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala, Palghat MP Sreekantan and OICC president Varghese Puthukulangara, Nagma said, “It is a great honor for me to win an award instituted in the name of the great Indian leader Rajiv Gandhi who steadfastly upheld the principles of secularism and democracy. He also worked hard to empower women in India. It is also a good fortune for me to receive this award from veteran Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala, who arrived yesterday morning to attend the ‘Puraskara Sandhya - 2019’ organized by OICC Kuwait.

Nagma also applauded the efforts being taken by the OICC Kuwait for the welfare of the Indian expat community in Kuwait. Chennithala, in his remarks earlier, detailed the political situation in Kerala as the state is heading to the polls soon for by-elections to five assembly constituencies. Chennithala yesterday presented two awards - Rajiv Gandhi Award for Top Industrialist and Socio-cultural Activist and Rajiv Gandhi Excellence Award 2019 — at a glittering ceremony held at the Mareena Hall, Jleeb Al-Shoyoukh.

Nagma was chosen for the award in recognition of her exemplary humanitarian services and social work as a socio-political activist in India, said B S Pilla, the jury chairman of the award committee. Nagma was also a popular actress who has acted in a wide range of Indian films in multiple languages such as Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Bhojpuri, Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali, Punjabi, and Marathi.