President Mukherjee bestows Bharat Ratna on Madan Mohan Malviya

Members of Malviya's family received the Bharat Ratna from Mukherjee at the traditional ceremony held in the historic Durbar Hall

Freedom fighter and founder of Banaras Hindu University Madan Mohan Malviya was on Monday posthumously conferred  the Bharat Ratna, the country’s highest civilian award, by President Pranab Mukherjee in a ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Named for the honour 68 years after his death, it was the members of Malviya’s family, including granddaughters Hem Sharma and Saraswati Sharma and grandsons Premdhar Malviya and Girdhar Malviya, who received the award in the Darbar Hall of Rashtrapati Bhavan at a ceremony attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Vice-President Hamid Ansari, among others.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, too, were in attendance, along with other Cabinet ministers.

However, no Congress leaders, including former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, were seen at the function even though government sources said, according to the protocol, all former prime ministers are invited to the function.

The President also bestowed the highest Padma award, the Padma Vibhushan, on Bharatiya Janata Party stalwart L K Advani, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and Sanskrit grammar expert, Jagadguru Swami Rambhadracharya.

Known for his espousal of Hindu nationalism, Malviya, an educationist, was also the initial founders of the Hindu Mahasabha.

Prominent Padma Bhushan awardees included noted lawyer Harish Salve, journalists Swapan Dasgupta and Rajat Sharma and 98-year old Saichiro Misumi — a proponent of Indo-Japanese friendship who had supported Subhash Chandra Bose during his visit to Japan in June 1943.

Of the 109 Padma Awards announced this year, 43 were conferred on Monday. Six awardees did not attend the function. The remaining 60 Padma awards will be given next month, with the tentative date for the ceremony being April 8, the sources said.

Satpal, an Asian Games gold medallist and the coach of Olympic medallist wrestler Sushil Kumar, was among the Padma Bhushan awardees, along with the chairman of Fortis Escorts Hospital Ashok Seth, and former chief election commissioner N Gopalaswami.

Among the prominent Padma Shri awardees were Bollywood director Sanjay Leela Bhansali, writer-lyricist Prasoon Joshi, physician Dr Randeep Guleria, creator of popular cartoon character ‘Chacha Chaudhary’ Pran Kumar Sharma (posthumously), shuttler P V Sindhu, Indian hockey captain Sardar Singh and amputee Everest climber Arunima Sinha.

Last week, the President had departed from protocol and visited the residence of former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee here to confer the Bharat Ratna on him. Asha Pran, wife of cartoonist Pran, said, “The award has come late, but it is still a recognition of the creative work he did during his lifetime.” She said it would have been better if it were  given during his lifetime.

Creator of well-loved cartoon characters such as 'Chacha Chowdhary', 'Billu', 'Pinki' and 'Raman', which were published in 10 languages, Pran passed away on August 5, 2014.

Sardar Singh said it was an honour to receive the coveted award.

Padma Shri awardee Prafulla Kar said that these awards were an inspiration to others to perform better in their respective fields.