"PM Forgot VD Savarkar, Bal Thackeray": Team Thackeray MP On Bharat Ratna

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut targeted the Centre for "forgetting" Hindutva icon and freedom fighter VD Savarkar and Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray while announcing the Bharat Ratna awards.

Former Prime Ministers PV Narasimha Rao and Charan Singh and "Green Revolution" pioneer MS Swaminathan will be conferred the Bharat Ratna, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on Friday.

In a post on X, Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut said, "PM Modi has again forgotten Savarkar and Thackeray, while he announced Bharat Ratna to PV Narasimha Rao, Chaudhary Charan Singh, and agriculture scientist and father of India's food revolution Dr MS Swaminathan."

The norm is that Bharat Ratna is awarded to three individuals a year, but PM Modi announced five names, Mr Raut said, citing upcoming polls as the reason for this.

The government earlier named former Bihar Chief Minister Karpoori Thakur, a champion of backward classes' empowerment, and LK Advani, a founding BJP member credited with charting the course of its rise through the 1990s, for the country's highest civilian honour.

At five, one more than the four announced in 1999, this is the maximum number of Bharat Ratna awards announced in a year.

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