Three days after former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was conferred on with the Bharat Ratna at his residence, freedom fighter and founder of Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Madan Mohan Malaviya, too, was on Monday given the country’s highest civilian award, posthumously, by President Pranab Mukherjee. Malaviya’s granddaughters Hem Sharma and Saraswati Sharma and grandsons Premdhar Malaviya and Girdhar Malaviya received the award for the freedom fighter, who got the honour 68 years after his death.
Known for his espousal of Hindu nationalism, Malaviya, an educationist, was also one of the founders of the right-wing organisation Hindu Mahasabha. The President gave away Padma Vibhushan to senior BJP leader lal Krishna Advani, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and Sanskrit grammar expert Jagadguru Swami Rambhadracharya. Among the 12 Padma Bhushan awardees were journalist and columnist with The Pioneer, Swapan Dasgupta, Editor-in-Chief of India TV Rajat Sharma, lawyer Harish Salve, David Frawley (American Hindu teacher), philanthropists Bill and Melinda Gates, Sudha Raghunathan (Carnatic vocalist), Prof Khadag Singh Valdiya (Geologist) and 98-year-old Saichiro Misumi — a proponent of Indo-Japanese friendship and who had supported Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose during his visit to Japan in June, 1943. The Gates couple, however, could not make it to the ceremony.
The other names included noted wrestling coach and a former Asian Games gold medallist Satpal, Chairman of Fortis Escorts Hospital Ashok Seth and former Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami. The Government had announced a total of 109 Padma awardees this year. While the awards were conferred on 49 recipients on Monday, the remaining will be given next month. Those who were conferred the Padma Shri were cinema director Sanjay leela Bhansali, writer-lyricist Prasoon Joshi, physicians from AIIMS Dr Randeep Guleria and Dr Nikhil Tandon, creator of popular cartoon character ‘Chacha Chaudhary’ Pran Kumar Sharma (posthumously), shuttler PV Sindhu, Indian hockey captain Sardar Singh and amputee Everest climber Arunima Sinha.
The ceremony was attended by Vice President Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley along with senior Cabinet ministers. However, no Congress leaders, including former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, were seen at the function despite invitation.
