New Delhi,11 May:External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, cricket star Sachin Tendulkar and melody queen Asha Bhosle were among the celebrity recipients of the Padma Vibhushan from Prez Pratibha Patil for their outstanding contribution in their respective fields.Infosys chief mentor N R Narayan Murthy and renowned hotelier P R S Oberoi were also conferred with the award.The first man to step on the world’s highest peak, Mount Everest, Sir Edmund Hillary was conferred the Padma Vibhushan posthumously.Noted author Dominique Lapierre, teacher Shyama Chona and classical musician Ustad Rahim Fahimuddin Khan Dagar received the Padma Bhushan while FICCI Secretary General Amit Mitra, sports person Bula Chowdhury and journalists Vinod Dua and Rajdeep Sardesai were presented with the Padma Shri.
Mukherjee is the first ever serving Cabinet Minister to get a Padma award.The best round of applause was reserved for Tendulkar as he went up to collect his award from the President.Ignoring the clamour for Bharat Ratna triggered by BJP leader L K Advani’s letter to the Prime Minister proposing Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s name, government decided against naming anyone for the award for the seventh consecutive year this time.Bharat Ratna was last given in 2001 to Lata Mangeshkar and Ustad Bismillah Khan.Vice President Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and other cabinet Ministers were present on the occasion on Monday.
Molecular biologist Asis Dutta, Chandrashekhar Dasgupta, former Ambassador Chandrashekhar Dasgupta, social activist Devendra Raj Mehta and renowned neurophysician Jagjit Singh Chopra were some of the other recipients of the Padma Bhushan.Among the other awardees were Arjunan Rajasekaran, B Shivanthi Adityan, Bhavarlal Hiralal Jain, Bina Agrawal, Deepak Sehgal, John Martin Nelson, Prof M Leelavathy, Mangala Prasad Mohanty and Raman Kapur.
Vikramjit Singh Sahney, Surendra Singh Yadav, Srinivas Adgata, Randhir Sud, Yusuf Ali MA, Simon Tony Fernandes and Pandit Pratap Pawar were among the other recipients.