President Pranab Mukherjee conferred former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajapyee with the Bharat Ratna at his Krishna Menon Marg residence here on Friday.
Departing from convention, President Mukherjee handed over the Bharat Ratna to 90-year-old Vajpayee at his residence.
Several political leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP veterans Murli Manohar Joshi and LK Advani, BJP president Amit Shah, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, and his Jammu and Kashmir counterpart Mufti Mohammad Sayeed were present on the occasion.
Several cabinet ministers were also present on the occasion.
Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the day was 'historic', and added that Vajpayee is a source of inspiration for crores of Indians, including him.
He also showered praise on President Pranab Mukherjee for personally visiting the ailing statesman's residence to confer him with the honour.
Also Read
The Rashtrapati Bhavan had, via a press communique, earlier in December stated that President Mukherjee will be conferring the Bharat Ratna to Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya (posthumously) and to Atal Behari Vajpayee.
Vajpayee, 90, was the country's first non-Congress Prime Minister who served a full five-year term - from 1998 to 2004. Last year, the party had celebrated his birthday - December 25 - as the Good Governance Day
The Bharat Ratna is the country's highest civilian award.