IndiaPost.com - Padma awards for Pranab, Sachin, Asha Bhosle and Ratan Tata

NEW DELHI: External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, cricket genius Sachin Tendulkar, melody queen Asha Bhosle and industrialist Ratan Tata were today chosen for Padma Vibhushan, the nation's second highest civilian award, but no one was named for highest award Bharat Ratna around which there has been a political controversy.

Noted enviromentalist R K Pachauri, Delhi Metro Chief E Sreedharan and world chess champion Vishwanathan Anand figure in the list of 13 personalities selected for the coveted Padma Vibhushan for 2008. Mukherjee is the first ever serving Cabinet minister to get a Padma award.

Indian-born American Astronaut Sunita Willams, ICICI Chief K V Kamath, new Citibank head Vikram Pandit, noted commentator Jasdev Singh and Centre's interlocutor for Naga talks K Padmanabhiah were among the 35 persons named for Padma Bhushan awards.

Bollywood actress Madhuri Dixit, Hollywood film-maker Manoj Night Shyamalan, who created waves with his blockbuster 'Sixth Sense', actor Tom Alter, national football captain Baichung Bhutia and former marathon swimmer Bula Chowdhury were in the list of 71 Padma Shri awardees.

Ignoring the clamour for Bharat Ratna triggered by BJP leader L K Advani's letter to the Prime Minister proposing Atal Bihari Vajpayee's name, Government decided against naming anyone for the award for the seventh consecutive year.

Bharat Ratna was last given in 2001 to Lata Mangeshkar and Ustad Bismillah Khan. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati had demanded that the award be given to BSP mentor Kanshi Ram posthumously, while the CPI(M) had made out a case for party stalwart Jyoti Basu, who said he was not in the race.

Former Chief Justice of India Justice A S Anand, who was also the Chairman of National Human Rights Commission, was in the list of personalities selected for Padma Vibhushan. Steel tycoon and the richest Indian, Lakshmi Narayan Mittal, Infosys Chief mentor N R Narayana Murthy and renowned hotelier P R S Oberoi would be conferred with country's second highest civilian award later this year.

The first man to step on the world's highest peak Mount Everest Sir Edmund Hillary was selected for the Padma Vibushan posthumously as also former bureaucrat and Principle Secretary to the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, P N Dhar.

The others, who were selected for Padma Bhushan awards for 2008 included former diplomat Chadrashekhar Dasgupta, former bureaucrat V Ramachandran, noted Gujjar leader from Jammu and Kashmir Mian Bashir Ahmed and economist Lord Meghnad Desai were named for Padma Bhushan.