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President confers Bharat Ratna on Amartya Sen, Ravi Shankar

President K R Narayanan today conferred the Bharat Ratna, the nation's high civilian award, on Nobel laureate Professor Amartya Sen, sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar, Loknayak Jayaprakash Narayan (posthumously) and Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi (posthumously) for their services to the nation in various fields.

The investiture ceremony was attended by political leaders, former presidents R Venkataraman and S D Sharma, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, and several others.

The first to receive the award was R P Prasad on behalf of Socialist leader Jayaprakash Narayan, who played a leading role against the Emergency imposed in 1975, resulting in the defeat of the Indira Gandhi-led Congress in 1977.

Sen was the next to receive the award from the President. After him, Surabala Bordoloi received the award on behalf of her late husband and former chief minister of Assam. She was taken in a wheelchair to the dais to receive the award.

The President went down a few steps to present the award to her amidst thunderous applause. The sitar maestro was the last to get the award. Ravi Shankar, accompanied by his wife Sukanya and daughter Anoushka, hugged the President and posed for photographs after the awards.

UNI EARLIER REPORTS:
Jayaprakash Narayan awarded Bharat Ratna
Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen gets Bharat Ratna
Bharat Ratna for Ravi Shankar, Gopinath Bordoloi

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