Singer Sandhya Mukherjee & former West Bengal CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee refuses Padma awards

Jan. 25: The Union government revealed the name of the Padma awardees a day before the Republic Day celebrations in line with the annual traditions. A total of 128 personalities are on this year’s list of Padma honours.

The Ministry of Home Affairs had earlier in the day announced Padma awards and former West Bengal Chief Minister and veteran CPI(M) leader Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s name was among the recipient of Padma Bhushan awards. He was given the award in the field of Public Affairs. However, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Tuesday refused Padma Bhushan award. The 77-year old Mr. Bhattacharjee held the office of Chief Minister of West Bengal from 2000 to 2011. In the 1990s, late CPM veteran and the first Chief Minister of Kerala E M S Namboodiripad had turned down the then P V Narasimha Rao’s offer to award him Padma Vibhushan.

Legendary playback singer and musician Sandhya Mukherjee was one of the personalities whose name was on the list of personalities chosen for the prestigious Padma Shri award this year. However, the singer has refused the central government’s offer to confer Padma Shri award on her. the 90-year-old singer has refused to accept the honour as she feels that it is too late for her. “Does anyone give Padma Shri this way? They do not know who I am! Should I take Padma Shri at the age of 90? And will I accept the honour just with a phone call? There is no respect for artistes anymore,” the singer was quoted saying in a Anandabazar Patrika report. Earlier, popular singer and composer Hemanta Kumar, popular as Hemanta Mukhopadhyay in Bengal, had also rejected the prestigious Padma awards conferred on him.

Padma Awards – one of the highest civilian Awards of the country, are conferred in three categories, namely, Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri. The Awards are given in various disciplines/ fields of activities, viz.- art, social work, public affairs, science and engineering, trade and industry, medicine, literature and education, sports, civil service, etc. ‘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. The awards are announced on the occasion of Republic Day every year.

These awards are conferred by the President of India at ceremonial functions which are held at Rashtrapati Bhawan usually around March/ April every year. This year the President has approved conferment of 128 Padma Awards including 2 duo case (in a duo case, the Award is counted as one). The list comprises 4 Padma Vibhushan, 17 Padma Bhushan and 107 Padma Shri Awards.  34 of the awardees are women and the list also includes 10 persons from the category of Foreigners/ NRI/PIO/ OCI and 13 Posthumous awardees.