On 24th December, 2014, a press communique from Pashtrapati Bhavan said “The President has been pleased to award Bharat Ratna to Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya (posthumously) and to Atal Bihari Vajpayee”.
Atal Bihari Vajpayee (born 25 December 1924) is former Indian Prime Minister and a well known Indian statesman. He was the eleventh Prime Minister of India, first for 13 days in 1996 and then from 1998 to 2004. A parliamentarian for over four decades, Vajpayee was elected to the Lok Sabha (the lower house of India’s Parliament) nine times, and twice to the Rajya Sabha (upper house). Atalji, as he is popularly called, enjoys great respect across all political parties even after he lost elections in 2004 and is not keeping good health at the time of award is announced.
Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya was an Indian educationist and politician. He is known for his role in the Indian independence movement and his espousal of Hindu nationalism. He was also popularly known as ‘Mahamana’.
He is still remembered as the founder of Banaras Hindu University (BHU) at Varanasi in 1916. BHU is the largest residential university in Asia and one of the largest in the world, having over 12,000 students across arts, sciences, engineering and technology. On the political front, Malaviyaji was the President of the Indian National Congress on four occasions (1909, 1913,1919,1932). He left congress in 1934. He was among the founder members of Hindu Mahasabha and also founded Scouting in India.
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