Music maestro late Bhupen Hazarika, former President Pranab Mukherjee and Bharatiya Jana Sangh leader late Nanaji Deshmukh were on Friday conferred the country’s highest civilian award, Bharat Ratna.
In an official statement, the government said Deshmukh and Hazarika were conferred the award posthumously. Mukherjee was President between 2012 and 2017.
Hazarika is the second from Assam, after the state’s first chief minister Gopinath Bordoloi, to have been honoured with Bharat Ratna which is conferred “in recognition of exceptional service/performance of the highest order” without distinction of race, occupation, position or gender.