Former President Pranab Mukherjee, Bharatiya Jana Sangh leader Nanaji Deshmukh and singer Bhupen Hazarika will be conferred the country's highest civilian award Bharat Ratna, an official statement said. Deshmukh and Hazarika have been selected for the award posthumously. 

The Bharat Ratna will be conferred after a gap of four years. Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and founder of Banaras Hindu University Madan Mohan Malviya were given the award by the Narendra Modi government in 2015. 

The 83-year-old Mukherjee, who was the President between 2012 and 2017, joins the elite club with Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Rajendra Prasad, Zakir Hussain and V.V. Giri who had been conferred the coveted award. Expressing gratitude over the award, Mukherjee said "I have got more from the people of our great country than I have given to them. It is with a deep sense of humility and gratitude to the people of India that I accept this great honour Bharat Ratna bestowed upon me. I have always said and I repeat, that I have got more from the people of our great country than I have given to them," he said in a tweet.

Mukherjee became India's youngest finance minister in 1982 at the age of 47. From 2004, he went on to head three crucial ministries — External Affairs, Defence and Finance — and became the first occupant of the Rashtrapati Bhavan to have this distinction.

Deshmukh was associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) since 1928 till his death in Satna, Madhya Pradesh in 2010 at the age of 94. He was known for starting the chain of RSS inspired schools throughout India. He was one of the founding members of the Bharatiya Jan Sangh which later evolved as the Bharatiya Janata Party. He was considered to be one of the architects of the Jai Prakash Narayan movement against Emergency in 1974 and among the key persons in the formation of the Janata Party government in 1977.

Born in 1926, Hazarika was a playback singer, lyricist, musician, singer, poet and filmmaker from Assam. A recipient of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (1987), Padma Shri (1977), Padma Bhushan (2001) and Padma Vibhushan (2012-posthumously), Hazarika was also awarded with the Dada Saheb Phalke Award in 1992. Hazarika did his Phd from Columbia University in 1952. He died in 2011. The cultural icon also had a brush with politics and had unsuccessfully contested the Guwahati Lok Sabha seat on a BJP ticket in 2004. He was an independent MLA in Assam during 1967-72. Hazarika gave music in Bollywood movies Rudaali, Darmiyaan, Gaja Gamini, Daman and many Assamese hits, including award winning film Sameli Memsaab.

With the announcement on January 25, the number of people who have received the Bharat Ratna so far has gone up to 48.

Founder chairman of infrastructure major L&T A.M. Naik was chosen for Padma Vibhushan and former Cisco head John Chambers was named for Padma Bhushan. Mahashay Dharam Pal Gulati, the owner of MDH spices, has also been named for Padma Bhushan. Adobe Inc chairman and CEO Shantanu Narayen has been named for Padma Shri. President of Djibouti Ismail Omar Guelleh, late journalist Kuldip Nayar, late actor Kadar Khan and cricketer Gautam Gambhir were among the 112 prominent personalities who were named for conferment of this year's Padma awards.