Malviya posthumously awarded Bharat Ratna; Advani, Punjab CM Badal get Padma Vibhushan

New Delhi: Noted educationist and freedom fighter Madan Mohan Malviya was on Monday posthumously conferred the Bharat Ratna, country’s highest civilian award, by President Pranab Mukherjee. [caption id=“attachment_2179665” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Madan Mohan Malviya was posthumously conferred the Bharat Ratna. IBNLive[/caption] A host of other other personalities included veteran BJP leader LK Advani and Punjab Chief Minister and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Parkash Singh Badal, were honoured with Padma awards by Mukherjee at a glittering ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi. Members of Malviya’s family received the Bharat Ratna from Mukherjee at the traditional ceremony held in the historic Durbar Hall with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Vice President Hamid Ansari, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley along with other senior cabinet ministers in attendance. The prominent who were awarded the Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian award, included Advani and Badal, while Padma Bhushan was awarded to lawyer Harish Salve and journalists Swapan Dasgupta and Rajat Sharma. Amongst the prominent Padma Shri awardees were film director Sanjay Leela Bhansali, writer-lyricist Prasoon Joshi, physician Dr Randeep Guleria, creator of popular cartoon character ‘Chacha Chaudhary’ Pran Kumar Sharma (posthumously), shuttler PV Sindhu, Hockey star Sardara Singh and amputee Everest climber Arunima Sinha. Last week, the President had awarded the Bharat Ratna to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee at his house in Delhi. Malviya, an educationist with a vision, was behind the establishment of the Banaras Hindu University. Born on 25 December, 1861, Malviya was catapulted into the political arena immediately after his first moving speech at the second Congress session held in Kolkata in 1886. He was President of INC in 1909 and 1918. Malviya is also remembered for his stellar role in the Independence movement and his espousal of Hindu nationalism. He was one of the initial leaders of the right-wing Hindu Mahasabha. PTI