Bharat Ratna Award 2014: Gifts of a lifetime

Atal Bihari Vajpayee: A statesman

A member of Parliament since 1957, Mr Vajpayee headed the 13-day government in 1996 after four decades in Opposition.

• His involvement in politics began during the Quit India Movement of 1942-1945. He started as a communist but shed that for RSS
• Vajpayee dropped out of law school to run an RSS magazine in the early 1950s. Later, he emerged as the moderate voice of the BJP.
• He became an aide to Shyama Prasad Mook-erjee, founder of the Jana Sangh, BJP’s predecessor. He was at Mookerjee’s side when he went on a fast-unto-death in Kashmir in 1953.
• One of India’s most charismatic post-independence leaders, Atal Behari Vajpayee is lauded as a statesman whose acceptability across the board succeeded in bringing the BJP to the centrestage of politics in the late 90s from being a virtual untouchable, especially after Babri Masjid demolition in 1992.
• His second stint as PM from 1998 ended within 13 months. He was reelected in 1999 and completed his full term.
• An orator par excellence, with a signature long pause, he is known for taking bold initiatives like riding a bus to Lahore
• His peace initiative failed as Pakistan undertook a covert operation to send troops into Kargil. His historic Agra summit with Pervez Musharraf in 2001 failed.

Madan Mohan Malviya: A Reformer

• Mahamana Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya was born on December 25, 1861 in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh.
• After completing his graduation from Calcutta University in 1884, Pandit Malviya taught at a school in Allahabad. It was in 1886, when 25-year-old Malviya was noticed by Surendranath Banerjee for his speech at 2nd Congress.
• After a brief stint as the editor of  Hindustan, in 1889, he pursued LLB and after completing his degree, he started practising at Allahabad High Court.
• He was instrumental in pushing the use of Hindi in court’s day-to-day work.
• In 1909 and 1918, he was the president of the Congress. He opposed the separate electorate for Muslims under the Lucknow Pact of 1916.
• In 1911, he gave up practice and started travelling all over the country to set up a university in Varanasi. During this time, he was called ‘Prince of Beggars’ by Mahatma Gandhi
• Established Banaras Hindu University in 1916.
• In 1931, Malviya, fondly called Mahamana by Gandhiji, went to attend the Round Table Conference in London with Mahatma Gandhi. He was jailed several times in 1930 and 1932.  On November 12, 1946 he passed away at the age of 85 in Varanasi.

BHARAT RATNAS

• C. Rajagopalachari - Freedom fighter and last Governor general of India
• Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Second President of India, educat-ionist and philosopher.
• C.V. Raman, Nobel laureate physicist.
• Bhagwan Das, freedom fighter, Kashi Vidyapith founder.
• Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya, Civil engineer, Diwan of Mysore state
• Govind Ballabh Pant, Freedom fighter, first CM of Uttar Pradesh.
• Dhondo Keshav Karve, Social reformer
• Bidhan Chandra Roy, Physician, 2nd CM of WB
• Purushottam Das Tandon, Freedom fighter, educationist
• Rajendra Prasad, 1st Prez
• Zakir Hussain, 3rd Prez
• Pandurang Vaman Kane, Indologist, Sanskrit scholar
• Lal Bahadur Shastri, Freedom fighter, second PM
• Indira Gandhi, Ex-PM.
• V.V. Giri, 4th Prez of India
• K. Kamaraj, Former CM of Tamil Nadu.Was instrumental in making Lala Bahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi  PM
• Mother Teresa, Founder of the Missionaries of Char-ity and Peace Nobel laureate
• Acharya Vinoba Bhave, Social reformer, and Ramon Magsaysay Awardee
• Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Known as ‘Frontier Gandhi’
• M.G. Ramachandran, Film actor and ex-CM of TN
• B.R. Ambedkar, Chief architect of the Constitution
• Nelson Mandela, Leader of the Anti-Apartheid Mov-ement in South Africa and Peace Nobel laureate
• Rajiv Gandhi Ex-PM, initiated IT revolution.
• Vallabhbhai Patel, Freedom fighter and India’s first home minister.
• Morarji Desai, Sixth PM  
• Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Freedom fighter. Ind-ia’s first education minister.
• J.R.D. Tata, industrialist and philanthropist.
• Satyajit Ray, Oscar winni-ng filmmaker
• Gulzarilal Nanda, Twice interim PM
• Aruna Asaf Ali, Freedom fighter
• A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Father of India’s missile programme, 11th Prez of India
• M.S. Subbulakshmi, Carnatic classical vocalist
• Chidambaram Subramaniam, Father of green revolution
• Jayaprakash Narayan, Freedom fighter, social reformer
• Amartya Sen, Nobel laureate economist
• Gopinath Bordoloi, First CM of Assam
• Pandit Ravi Shankar, Classical Sitar player
• Lata Mangeshkar, Playback singer
• Ustad Bismillah Khan, Shehnai maestro
• Bhimsen Joshi, Hindustani classical vocalist
• C.N.R. Rao, Scientist
• Sachin Tendulkar, Cricketer