Karnataka IPS officer D Roopa’s decision to not attend the Namma Bengaluru Awards constituted by Namma Bengaluru Foundation (NBF), has now become a full blown war of words.

Roopa said she had declined to participate in the event based on two factors: The award had a large cash prize, and she did not want to be associated with any quasi-political body. She said that she was not interested in any political overtones hinting at the fact that since the foundation is funded by BJP MP Rajeev Chadrasekhar, she did not want to participate.

Hitting back at Roopa, NBF alleged that it was a case of ‘sour grapes’. Roopa, they claimed had lobbied hard to both the jury and the NBF team to win the award. But, when she realized that the award was going to be presented to someone else, she decided to score a political point in the bargain.

“We are saddened and shocked at the inappropriate conduct of one of nominees to the government official category of the 9th Edition of Namma Bengaluru awards 2018. Never in the long history of recognizing the heroes of our city by a jury of reputed Bengalureans have we experienced this relentless lobbying for the award and then this immature malicious conduct by a nominee who did not make it to the final winner. There were multiple calls by this nominee to lobby both to jury and NBF team and despite that she didn’t win the award and thus this is a case of sour grapes.

For the record, the concerned person has been engaging with jury extensively and did not mention a word of these newly discovered views at any stage of her interaction. These views have surfaced only after the jury had decided the final winner through a robust deliberative process befitting the respect built by the NBA and NBF over the years and audited by leading auditing firms like KPMG and E&Y over the years.)

We realise that there could be disappointment among some shortlisted nominees in not winning the award (It’s a case of sour grapes.),” Sridhar Pabbisetti, CEO of NBF said.

Hours later, Roopa rebutted the accusations and said that it would have been conflict of interest to accept an award from NBF.

“When NBF started, its MD, Hon'ble MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar was an independent MP. Only few days ago, he has been elected MP from a political party. Though the process of NBF awards for this year began months ago, it is only recently that the MD of NBF joined a political party. My move to decline is after this development,” she said.

She also added that since NBF was involved in several court cases against the government of Karnataka including steel flyover and encroachments into lakes, it would be ‘improper for Government servants to accept the award - especially if one wants to maintain neutrality and fairness’.

Roopa added, “It is learnt from some of them in the Foundation, that as the NBF award started losing its credibility for the above said reasons, the prize money has been doubled this year from 1 lakh to 2 lakh rupees, only to lure and make it more attractive. The NBF by saying that I knew the results of award have admitted themselves inadvertently that the whole process was rigged. Because, their rules and policy say that till the last moment the awards are given, no one knows who is getting and they take pride in the above fact. To say anything contrary now by them amounts to further losing their credibility. I declined the award much before. It would be even more embarrassing had 1 received it and then returned.”