New Delhi: India honoured former Union Minister, Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, and George Fernandes posthumously for their service to the country. Padma Vibhushan was also awarded to India’s pride, Mary Kom and also to former Prime Minister of Mauritius, Anerood Jugnauth.
Former Goa Chief Minister and BJP leader, Manohar Parrikar, was awarded the Padma Bhushan, which is the third highest civilian award, posthumously.
Padma Bhushan was also conferred upon Industrialists Anand Mahindra and Venu Shrinivasan, badminton champion, P. V. Sindhu and former Nagaland Chief Minister S. C. Jamir. Kashmir politician Muzaffar Hussain Baig was also awarded the Padma Bhushan.
Prime Minister in a tweet congratulated every awardees. He tweeted, “Congratulations to all those who have been conferred the Padma Awards. The awardees include extraordinary individuals who have made exceptional contributions to our society, nation and humanity.”
Two Malayalees were also conferred Padma awards. The two Padma Shri awardees were Sathyanarayanan Mundayoor and Muzhikal Pankajakshi.
Sathyanarayanan Mundayoor was awarded for his selfless service in the education sector in Arunachal Pradesh. He resigned from his government job to work in the state since 1979 and was the architect in establishing many libraries across the North East state.
Muzhikal Pankajakshi was recognised for her work to keep alive the art form Nokuvidya Pavakalli, which is a doll performance. Stories of Ramayana and Mahabharatam is enacted through the doll play.
This year seven personalities were awarded the Padma Vibhushan, 16 were conferred the Padma Bhushan and 118 given the Padma Shri.
