Remember the furore in January when news reports said that Baba Ramdev was on the Padma list and the Baba benevolently declined? Or did the Baba decline and then media reported it? We are not sure of the order in which it happened. Anyway, it now looks like it was a wasted effort as Baba’s name was never on the list.A Right To Information (RTI) response has revealed that Baba Ramdev was not considered for the Padma honour. Interestingly, five others rejected the award, including movie script writer Salim Khan, former diplomat KS Bajpai, late Mohammed Burhanuddin, spiritual leaders Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and Mata Amritanandamayi.The Home Ministry in in reply to a query by RTI activist Subhash Agrawal however was not ready to reveal the names of the people who were recommended, but not considered for the award.Sri Sri Ravishankar had rejected the award saying someone else should be given the honour. The RTI reply also says that Kerala’s most famous spiritual leader Amritanandamayi had also rejected the award for some unknown reason.The reply also said meeting of the Padma Awards Committee was held on October 31, December 5, and December 13-14, 2014, but no minutes were maintained.In January, Baba Ramdev wrote the MHA, “I am a sanyasi and I consider it my sacred duty to work selflessly towards my sanyas dharma, along with rashtra dharma and seva dharma… I want to request you, with politeness and gratitude, to confer this honour to any other great personality.” Next time, maybe.Read- Arindam Chaudhari's IIPM 2.0 has a puzzling explanation on what they are all about