Today, former President Pranab Mukherjee will be honored with the country’s highest civilian award ‘Bharat Ratna’. Apart from him, this award will also be posthumously given to Assam singer Bhupen Hazarika and social activist Nanaji Deshmukh. The names of the three celebrities were announced in January for the Bharat Ratna award.
Bharat Ratna is the highest civilian honor of the country, which is given for exceptional national service. Pranab Mukherjee was the 13th President of India from 2012 to 2017. He held many important positions in his five decades of political life. He was also the defense, foreign and finance minister in the UPA government.
Nanaji Deshmukh was a social worker from India. He worked in the fields of education, health and rural self-sufficiency. So Bhupen Hazarika was a lyricist, music composer, singer, poet and film-maker from the northeastern state of Assam. Hazarika was awarded the Padma Shri in 1977 and the Padma Bhushan in 2001.
The Bharat Ratna is awarded the highest civilian honor of the country for those who do exceptional and remarkable national service in specific fields like arts, literature, science, social service and sports. This honor was instituted on 2nd January 1954 by the then Prime Minister of India, Dr. Rajendra Prasad. The first Bharat Ratna award was conferred on Chakravarti Rajagopalachari. Initially there was no practice of awarding this honor posthumously, but this provision was added a year later. Similarly, the provision of honoring Bharat Ratna to those who have achieved special achievement in the field of sports was also included later.
Pranab Mukherjee, Nanaji Deshmukh and Bhupen Hazarika will be honored with Bharat Ratna award today
