Political heavyweights Murli Manohar Joshi, Sharad Pawar and former lok Sabha Speaker late PA Sangma, cricketer Virat Kohli and singer KJ Yesudas are among the 89 people who have been selected for this year’s Padma awards. Of them, Joshi, Pawar, Sangma and Yesudas, former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister and BJP veteran late Sunderlal Patwa, spiritual guru Jaggi Vasudev and former ISRO Chairman Professor Udupi Ramachandra Rao have been chosen for Padma Vibhushan, the country’s second-highest civilian award.
Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian honour, will not be conferred on anyone this year. This year’s list of 89 Padma awardees is supposed to be the shortest in many years.
This year’s list of Padma awardees includes many unsung heroes from various walks of life. “The focus of the Padma awards this year was on recognising and honouring the talent of unknown heroes in the country,” said Home Ministry officials.
Prominent among them are 91-year-old Bhakti Yadav, popularly known as “Doctor Dadi” from Indore, captain of the India Blind cricket team Shekhar Naik, 76-year-old Meenakshi Amma from Kerala, who began her martial art classes at the age of seven, Karimul Haque (52), a tea garden worker affectionately called “Ambulance Dada” and Dr Subroto Das the “Highway Messiah” who is one of the pioneers in bringing medical relief to accident victims on national highways.
Out of the total 89 people, 19 of the awardees are women. The list also includes five persons from the category of foreigners, NRIs, PIOs and six posthumous awardees. For the first time, the Padma list does not include any Bollywood star. Two persons, Bharathi Vishnuvardhan (Karnataka), Sadhu Meher (Odisha) were selected from the film fraternity.
Yoga Guru Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati, father of laparoscopic surgery in India Tehemton Udwadia, Grammy award winner and Hindustani classical instrumentalist Vishwa Mohan Bhatt and Thai Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn were among the seven people selected for Padma Bhushan.
Other awardees in this category included Sanskrit scholar Devi Prasad Dwivedi, Jain spiritual Guru Ratna Sundar Maharaj and editor and political satirist Cho Ramaswamy, on whom the award will be conferred posthumously.
Indian cricket team captain Virat Kohli, Sakshi Malik, the first woman wrestler from the country to win an Olympic medal, former lok Sabha Secretary General T K Vishwanathan, Chef Sanjeev Kapoor, former diplomat Kanwal Sibal and singer Kailash Kher are among 75 people chosen for this year’s Padma Shri awards.
Well known endocrinologist MM Godbole, film critic Bhawana Somaaya, Farsi writer KN Pandita and French historian Michel Danino, settled in Pudhucherry, engaged in the research of Saraswati River were among others who were selected for the Padma Shri awards.
According to Home Ministry officials more than 18,000 nominations were received for the civilian awards this year.