Bharat Ratna conferred to Bhimsen Joshi

New Delhi, Feb 11: One of India's eminent exponent of Hindustani classical music Pandit Bhimsen Joshi was officially conferred the Bharat Ratna at his residence by a President's emissary on Tuesday, Feb 10. A F Ahmed, Additional Secretary in the Union Home Ministry presented the citation and the Ratna to the doyen of Kirana Gharana in a simple occasion. Joshi turned 88 on Feb 4.

Harshawardhan Patil, the Maharashtra cultural affairs Minister and some disciples of the maestro were present during the occasion other than his family members. Pandit Joshi, had earlier expressed his inability to go to Delhi to receive the highest civilian honour due to health issues. He expressed his gratitude and thanked President and countrymen for the award.

Raghavendra, Srinivas and Jayant sons of Joshi said to mediapersons that the President herself wanted to come down to Pune and present the honour to the vocalist. “It was however, his wish to keep it a low-key affair and he did not want the President to take the trouble of personally coming over," they added.

OneIndia News (With inputs from Agencies)