Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, a charismatic practitioner of consensual politics who found acceptability across the political spectrum, was today picked for the country's highest civilian honour Bharat Ratna, an award that was also bestowed on late freedom fighter and Hindu Mahasabha leader Madan Mohan Malviya.
The announcement of the decision taken by the Modi government came ahead of the birthday of Vajpayee, who turns 90, and the 153rd birth anniversary of Malviya tomorrow.
"The President has been pleased to award Bharat Ratna to Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya (posthumously) and to Atal Bihari Vajpayee," a Rashtrapati Bhavan press communique said.
With today's decision, the number of those bestowed with the Bharat Ratna award goes up to 45. Last year, cricketer Sachin Tendulkar and scientist C N R Rao were chosen for the honour.
The first BJP Prime Minister who was in office between 1998 and 2004, Vajpayee has faded from public life due to age-related illness. He is lauded as a statesman and the moderate face of BJP whose respect for political adversaries was a striking feature of his personality.
As Prime Minister, he has been credited with conceiving the golden quadrilateral infrastructure project and was praised for his bold peace initiative with Pakistan.
India's longest serving prime minister outside Congress party, Vajpayee's detractors called him the "mask" of RSS but still they always had good words for him.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the conferment of Bharat Ratna on Malviya and Vajpayee was a "fitting recognition" of the services of the "illustrious stalwarts" to the nation.
Describing Vajpayee as one of the greatest communicators that India has ever seen, Union Minister Arun Jaitley said he made his presence felt at the national level and was committed to peace in Southeast Asia.
