Just hours after the recipients of the 2022 Padma Awards were announced, a controversy broke out.
This year, one of the nation's highest civilian honours has been conferred on leaders of Opposition parties like the Congress and the Communist Party of India (Marxist).
However, CPI(M) leader and former Chief Minister of West Bengal, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has reportedly refused to accept the award. Bhattacharjee reportedly issued a statement saying, "I don't know anything about the Padma Bhushan Award. Nobody told me about it. If I have been awarded the Padma Bhushan, I would reject it."
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Bhattacharjee was Chief Minister of West Bengal from 2002 to 2011.
The other significant Opposition name in the Padma Bhushan list is Congress' Ghulam Nabi Azad, former Chief Minister of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.
The other Padma awardees range from politicians to soldiers, and business leaders to sportspersons.
General Bipin Rawat, India's first Chief of Defence Staff who died in a chopper crash last month, has been posthumously awarded the Padma Vibhushan. Kalyan Singh, former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh has also been posthumously honoured with the Padma Vibhushan.
Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella have been conferred with the Padma Bhushan.
Vaccine firm Bharat Biotech chairman Krishna Ella, co-founder Suchitra Ella, and Serum Institute of India managing director Cyrus Poonawalla have been awarded the Padma Bhushan.
Olympic gold medalist Neeraj Chopra, and Paralympics gold medalist Avani Lekhara are among the sportspersons being honoured with the Padma Shri.