Joshi, Pawar, Sangma to get Padma Vibhushan

New Delhi: Political stalwarts Murli Manohar Joshi, Sharad Pawar and former Lok Sabha speaker P A Sangma, cricketer Virat Kohli and Carnatic musician K J Yesudas were among the 89 people who were selected for this year's Padma awards. Joshi, Pawar, Sangma and Yesudas figured among the list of seven people who were selected for Padma Vibhushan, country's second highest civilian award. Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian honour, will not be conferred on anybody this year. Among the other awardees in this category were Prof Udipi Ramachandra Rao, former Chairman of ISRO, Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, spiritual master, yogi and mystic who has 70 lakh volunteers across the world, and Sunder Lal Patwa, former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh and a BJP veteran.

Out of the seven, Sangma and Patwa have been chosen for the award posthumously. The number of Padma awardees this year is 89, which includes seven recipients each for Padma Vibhushan and Padma Bhushan. Out of this, 19 of the awardees are women. The list also includes five persons from the category of foreigners, NRIs, PIOs and 6 posthumous awardees. For the first time, the Padma list does not include any Bollywood actor. Yoga Guru Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati, father of laparoscopic surgery in India Tehemton Udwadia, Grammy awardee and Hindustani classical instrumentalist Vishwa Mohan Bhat, Thai Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhron were among seven people selected for Padma Bhushan.

Other awardees in this category included Sanskrit scholar Devi Prasad Dwivedi, jain Spritual Guru Ratna Sundar maharaj and editor and political satirist Cho Ramaswamy, on whom the award will be conferred posthumously. Indian cricket team captain Virat Kohli, Sakshi Malik, the first woman wrestler from the country to win an Olympic medal, former Lok Sabha Secretary General T K Vishwanathan, Chef Sanjeev Kapoor, former diplomat Kanwal Sibal and singer Kailash Kher are among 75 people chosen for this year's Padma Shri awards. Well known endocrinologist M M Godbole, film critic Bhawana Somaaya, Farsi writer K N Pandita and French historian Michel Danino were among others who were selected for Padma Shri awards. The government had received 18,000 nominations this time out of which 4,000 were submitted online.