Former Union ministers George Fernandes, Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj, and former President of Mauritius Anerood Jugnauth were on Monday conferred the Padma Vibhushan posthumously for their exceptional and distinguished service.
The awards were presented at two civil investiture ceremonies at the Rashtrapati Bhavan for the years 2020 and 2021, held in the morning and evening respectively. A total of seven Padma Vibhushan, 16 Padma Bhushan and 122 Padma Shri awards were presented for the two years.
The face of women’s boxing in India M.C. Mary Kom, who is a six-time AIBA women's boxing champion, Shri Shri Vishwesha Theertha Swamiji of Udupi (posthumous), popularly known as Shri Pejavara Swamiji, were also honoured with the Padma Vibhushan by President Ram Nath Kovind in the presence of Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Union Home Minister Amit Shah among others.
Former defence minister Manohar Parrikar (posthumous), who had also served as chief minister of Goa, chairman of Mahindra Group Anand Mahindra, chairman of Sundaram-Clayton Group, Venu Srinivasan, former Nagaland chief minister of S.C. Jamir were given the Padma Bhushan.
Badminton star P.V. Sindhu, Kashmiri political leader Muzaffar Hussain Baig, Tsering Landol, the first gynaecologist from Leh, bilingual author Manoj Das (posthumous), Krishnammal Jagannathan, a social activist from Tamil Nadu, were also among those who received the Padma Bhushan.
Bollywood star Kangna Ranaut, film producer Karan Johar, television and film producer Ekta Kapoor, senior Professor at PGIMER, Chandigarh, Digambar Behera, internationally renowned Indian classical dance exponent Indira P.P. Bora were among those conferred the Padma Shri.
The Padma awards are given in three categories — Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri — and announced annually on the eve of Republic Day. The Padma Vibhushan is awarded for exceptional and distinguished service, Padma Bhushan for distinguished service of high order and Padma Shri for distinguished service in any field.
Those awarded Padma Vibhushan include former union ministers George Fernandes (posthumous), Arun Jaitley (posthumous), Sushma Swaraj (posthumous) and Pandit Chhannulal Mishra, Hindustani classical and semi-classical vocalist.
President Kovind termed Fernandes a veteran political leader and trade unionist, who was a “champion of the poor and devoted his life to uplifting the cause of the downtrodden”. The award was received by Fernades' wife Leila Kabir.
President Kovind also presented the Padma Shri to Harekala Hajabba, an orange vendor in Mangalore, who saved money to build a school in his village, and Mohammad Shareef, a cycle mechanic turned social worker who performed last rites of unclaimed dead bodies with full dignity.
Abdul Jabbar Khan (posthumous) from Bhopal, who was known for his fight for justice for victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy, was also awarded the Padma Shri.
Padma Shri was given to Leela Josho, a gynaecologist known as Mother Teresa of Ratlam, for her contribution of more than two decades to reduce maternal mortality in tribal, rural and urban slums of in Madhya Pradesh and Tulsi Gowda, an environmentalist from Karnataka who has planted more than 30,000 saplings and has been involved in environmental conservation activities for the past six decades.
Padma Shri award was also given to renowned Santali litterateur Damayanti Beshra, television and film actress Sarita Joshi, composer Adnan Sami Khan.
