Mukherjee, Deshmukh and Hazarika would be conferred Bharat Ratna

 

NEW DELHI: The government announced conferring on Mukherjee the Bharat Ratna, the country's highest civilian award, for his contribution to public life. The late singer Bhupen Hazarika and the late Jana Sangh leader Nanaji Deshmukh were also conferred the Bharat Ratna. Tej Hazarika, the son of the late singer-composer Bhupen Hazarika, said the government's decision to confer Bharat Ratna on his father is a victory for humanity, diversity and the country's secular character. The government had announced that former president Pranab Mukherjee, the later Bharatiya Jana Sangh leader Nanaji Deshmukh and Bhupen Hazarika would be conferred the Bharat Ratna - the country's highest civilian award. An e-mailed statement issued quoted Tej Hazarika, who lives in the USA, as saying: "In his songs, blueprints for the youth and future of India can be discovered." Tej, reacting to his father being conferred the country's highest civilian award, said, "In his songs he celebrated the richness of indigenous people not only of the Northeast but all of India and he advocated their inclusion in the Indian experience as essential to the success of Indian civilisation as a whole."

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