Lok Sabha Question No. 1105 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-12-13
Subject: Criteria for Bharat Ratna Awards
Ministry: HOME AFFAIRS
Asked by: Bhagirath Chaudhary

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1105

TO  BE  ANSWERED  ON  THE  13 TH   DECEMBER,  2022/AGRAHAYANA  22,  1944 (SAKA)

CRITERIA FOR BHARAT RATNA AWARDS

†1105.  SHRI BHAGIRATH CHOUDHARY:

Will the Minister of HOME AFFAIRS be pleased to state:

(a) whether there is any set criteria for conferring 'Bharat Ratna' the highest award in the country and if so, the details thereof;

(b)  the  date  on  which  the  above  said  award  was  started  and  the  names  of citizens honoured with above awards so far, year-wise;

(c)  whether the Government proposes to confer the country's highest award 'Bharat  Ratna'  upon  the  brave  and  revolutionary  martyrs  Shri  Bhagat  Singh, Shri  Rajguru  and  Shri  Sukhdev  for  awakening  the  spirit  of  revolution  for  the country's freedom and taking to the gallows happily and not bowing before the British without writing an apology to them; and

(d)  if  so,  the  time  by  which  they  are  likely  to  be  awarded  and  if  not,  the reasons therefor?

ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS (SHRI NITYANAND RAI)

(a)  to  (d):    Bharat  Ratna,  the  highest  civilian  Award  of  the  country  was instituted  on  2 nd   January,  1954.  All  persons  without  distinction  of  race, occupation,  position  or  sex  are  eligible  for  this  Award.  It  is  awarded  in recognition  of  exceptional  service/performance  of  the  highest  order  in  any field of human endeavour. The decisions regarding award of Bharat Ratna are taken  from  time  to  time.  No  formal  recommendations  for  this  Award  are necessary. A list of recipients of Bharat Ratna (year-wise) is at Annexure.

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## LIST OF RECIPIENTS OF BHARAT RATNA

|   S. No. | NAME                                                       |   AWARDEDIN |
|----------|------------------------------------------------------------|-------------|
|        1 | Shri Chakravarti Rajagopalachari (1878-1972)               |        1954 |
|        2 | Shri Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan (1888-1975)                  |        1954 |
|        3 | Shri Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman (1888-1970)              |        1954 |
|        4 | Dr. Bhagwan Das (1869-1958)                                |        1955 |
|        5 | Shri Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya (1861-1962)                 |        1955 |
|        6 | Shri Jawaharlal Nehru (1889 -1964)                         |        1955 |
|        7 | Shri Govind Ballabh Pant (1887-1961)                       |        1957 |
|        8 | Dr. Dhondo Keshav Karve (1858-1962)                        |        1958 |
|        9 | Shri Bidhan Chandra Roy (1882-1962)                        |        1961 |
|       10 | Shri Purushottam Das Tandon (1882-1962)                    |        1961 |
|       11 | Dr. Rajendra Prasad (1884-1963)                            |        1962 |
|       12 | Dr. Zakir Husain (1897-1969)                               |        1963 |
|       13 | Dr. Pandurang Vaman Kane (1880-1972)                       |        1963 |
|       14 | Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri (Posthumous) (1904-1966)          |        1966 |
|       15 | Smt. Indira Gandhi (1917-1984)                             |        1971 |
|       16 | Shri Varahagiri Venkata Giri (1894-1980)                   |        1975 |
|       17 | Shri Kumaraswamy Kamraj (Posthumous) (1903-1975)           |        1976 |
|       18 | Mother Mary Teresa Bojaxhiu (Mother Teresa) (1910-1997)    |        1980 |
|       19 | Acharya Vinoba Bhave (Posthumous) (1895-1982)              |        1983 |
|       20 | Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (1890-1988)                        |        1987 |
|       21 | Shri Manidur Gopalan Ramachandran (Posthumous) (1917-1987) |        1988 |
|       22 | Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (Posthumous) (1891-1956)        |        1990 |
|       23 | Dr. Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (1918-2013)                  |        1990 |
|       24 | Shri Morarji Ranchhodji Desai (1896-1995)                  |        1991 |
|       25 | Shri Rajiv Gandhi (Posthumous) (1944-1991)                 |        1991 |

|   26. | Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel (Posthumous) (1875-1950)     |   1991 |
|-------|-------------------------------------------------------|--------|
|    27 | Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (Posthumous) (1888-1958)      |   1992 |
|    28 | Shri Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhai Tata (1904-1993)       |   1992 |
|    29 | Shri Satyajit Ray (Posthumous) (1922-1992)            |   1992 |
|    30 | Shri Gulzari Lal Nanda (Posthumous) (1898-1998)       |   1997 |
|    31 | Smt. Aruna Asaf Ali (Posthumous) (1909-1996)          |   1997 |
|    32 | Dr. Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam (1931-2015)   |   1997 |
|    33 | Smt. Madurai Shanmukhavadivu Subbulakshmi (1916-2005) |   1998 |
|    34 | Shri Chidambaram Subramaniam (1910-2000)              |   1998 |
|    35 | Shri Jayaprakash Narayan (Posthumous) (1902-1979)     |   1999 |
|    36 | Professor Amartya Sen (b-1933)                        |   1999 |
|    37 | Shri Gopinath Bordoloi (Posthumous) (1890-1950)       |   1999 |
|    38 | Pandit Ravi Shankar (1920-2012)                       |   1999 |
|    39 | Ms. Lata Dinanath Mangeshkar (1929-2022)              |   2001 |
|    40 | Ustad Bismillah Khan (1916-2006)                      |   2001 |
|    41 | Pandit Bhimsen Gururaj Joshi (1922-2011)              |   2009 |
|    42 | Prof. Chintamani Nagesa Ramachandra Rao (b-1934)      |   2014 |
|    43 | Shri Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar (b-1973)                 |   2014 |
|    44 | Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee (1924-2018)                 |   2015 |
|    45 | Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya (Posthumous)(1861-1946)   |   2015 |
|    46 | Shri Nanaji Deshmukh (Posthumous)(1916-2010)          |   2019 |
|    47 | Dr. Bhupendra Kumar Hazarika (Posthumous)(1926-2011)  |   2019 |
|    48 | Shri Pranab Mukherjee (1935-2020)                     |   2019 |

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