The Government of India has decided to confer Bharat Ratna for freedom fighter Madan Mohan Malviya and former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Bharat Ratna is considered as the highest civilian award of the country.Â
Last year the award was conferred to Rajya Sabha MP and Cricketer Sachin Tendulkar and Scientist CNR Rao. Till now 43 people have been honored with this award.
Madan Mohan Malviya was born in Allahabad. He was one of the founders of the Hindu Mahasabha. He was a freedom fighter and popularly known as Mahamana. He was president of Indian National Congress (INC) for two terms in 1909 and1918.
Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the former Prime Minister of India. He restarted the Jana Sangh as the Bharatiya Janata Party in 1980, when the Janata Party government collapsed. He was the Minister of External Affairs in the cabinet of Prime Minister Morarji Desai in 1978. Vajpayee was the first person to deliver a speech to the United Nations General Assembly in Hindi.
He completed the full five-year from 1999-2004 and he became the first Prime Minister from outside the Indian National Congress party to serve a full five-year term.