President confers Bharat Ratna on 2 former PMs, Bihar ex-CM, agricultural scientist

New Delhi, March 30

President Droupadi Murmu on Saturday conferred India’s highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, posthumously on former Prime Ministers PV Narasimha Rao and Chaudhary Charan Singh; former Bihar Chief Minister Karpoori Thakur and late agricultural scientist MS Swaminathan.

The awards were presented at an investiture ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan attended by top dignitaries led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Bharat Ratna for late PM Rao was received by his son PV Prabhakar Rao.

Jayant Chaudhary received the award on behalf of his grandfather Chaudhary Charan Singh and Nitya Rao on behalf of her father MS Swaminathan. Late Karpoori Thakur’s son Ramnath Thakur received the honour in the presence of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

The citation for Rao, born on June 28, 1921, in Telangana, spoke of the late Congress veteran’s patriotism. “While he topped the matriculation examination in the Nizam dominion, he faced expulsion from the intermediate course for defying the Nizam’s instructions against reciting Vande Mataram. Undeterred, he pursued studies at Nagpur University and Fergusson College, Pune, excelling in math and astronomy,” the citation said.

Chaudhary Charan Singh was born on December 23, 1902, in a peasant family in Meerut of United Province (Uttar Pradesh). The citation traced Singh’s rise from the founder member of Ghaziabad Town Congress Committee, first-time MLA in 1937 and Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh in 1967, to PM in 1979.

President’s citation for Father of the Green Revolution Swaminathan hailed the late scientist as the principal architect of modern agricultural research and education in India and how as the first Asian DG of IRRI he brought attention to women in rice farming. Swaminathan passed away on September 28, 2023. The citation for Karpoori read he worked tirelessly to improve the lives of the disadvantaged people.