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Dharmendra, ex-Kerala CM, former Supreme Court judge among Padma award winners
In a statement, the government announced 131 Padma awards for 2026, including five Padma Vibhushan, 13 Padma Bhushan and 113 Padma Shri.
New Delhi: Actor Dharmendra, former Kerala chief minister VS Achuthanandan, former Supreme Court judge KT Thomas, violin maestro N Rajam, and eminent journalist P Narayanan won India’s second-highest civilian honour, the Padma Vibhushan, on Sunday.
In a statement, the government announced 131 Padma awards for 2026, including five Padma Vibhushan, 13 Padma Bhushan and 113 Padma Shri, which included two cases in which the award for two individuals was counted as one.
Separately, President Droupadi Murmu will on Monday award the country’s highest peacetime gallantry medal, Ashoka Chakra, to Indian astronaut and fighter pilot Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, who served as pilot for the historic Axiom Mission to the International Space Station (ISS) last year, at the Republic Day parade.
Colonel Sofiya Qureshi, one of the two women officers who briefed the media during Operation Sindoor, has been awarded the Vishisht Seva Medal for distinguished service.
Jharkhand Mukti Morcha patriarch Shibu Soren, adman Piyush Pandey, former chief minister Bhagat Singh Koshyari, politician VK Malhotra, actor Mammooty, tennis legend Vijay Amritraj, singer Alka Yagnik, and banker Uday Kotak were among the 13 Padma Bhushan laureates.
Cricket stars Rohit Sharma and Harmanpreet Kaur were conferred the Padma Shri along with veteran hockey coach Baldev Singh, actors Gadde Babu Rajendra Prasad and R Madhavan, and former JNU vice chancellor Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar
“Congratulations to all the Padma awardees for their outstanding contributions to our nation. Their excellence, dedication and service across diverse fields enrich the fabric of our society. The honour reflects the spirit of commitment and excellence that continues to inspire generations,” said Prime Minister Narendra Modi on X.
In the Padma list, 90 awardees were women, six were foreigners, non-resident Indians, people of Indian origin, overseas citizens of India and 16 were posthumous.
“So so proud that the govt has recognised Dharam ji’s immense contribution to the film industry by bestowing on him the prestigious Padma Vibhushan award,” said his wife and parliamentarian Hema Malini.
Three of the five Padma Vibhushan awardees were from Kerala, which netted a total of eight awards. Tamil Nadu got 13, West Bengal 11, and Assam five. All four states go to the polls this summer, along with the Union territory of Puducherry. Maharashtra had the most with 15.
“I am happy to receive this award. This happened because of the blessings of my parents and gurus,” Rajam told news agency PTI.
Former Central Reserve Police Force chief, K Vijay Kumar, a key architect of operations against Left Wing Extremism and smuggler Veerappan, actor Prosenjit Chatterjee, IIT-Madras director V Kamakoti, and former Prasar Bharti CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati won the Padma Shri.
Georgian Vladimer Mestvirishvili (posthumous), a freestyle wrestling coach who mentored Olympic medallists, German Lars Christian Koch, a globally acclaimed museologist, were among the foreign nationals given the award.
There were also many little-known figures – Armia Fernandez, a neonatologist who established Asia’ s first human milk bank, Ashok Kumar Haldar, a former railway guard who became a distinguished Dalit author in Bengal, Bhagwandas Raiwarkar, who preserved and promoted Bundelkhand martial folk traditions, Bharat Singh Bharti, a Bhojpuri folk singer who wrote, composed and sang more than 1000 songs, Karbi folk singer from Assam Pokhila Lekthepi, renowned Kurumba painter R Krishnan, who revitalised the 3,000 year old art form, and Anke Gowda, a former bus conductor who set up India’s largest free personal library – in the list.
The winners also included 80-year old Naga folk actor, Sangyusand S Pongener, who preserved and promoted Ao indigenous traditions, and Yumnam Jatra Singh, who died last year at the age of 102 and mentored the Nata Sankirtana practitioner community in Manipur. “We thank the government for recognising our grandfather’s contribution. It means a lot that a man, who dedicated his life towards art for his community in one remote part of the country has been recognised,” Singh’s grandson Daya Kanan Singh said.
Senior officials who asked not to be named said that the government received over 39,000 nominations. The unsung heroes were from at least 84 districts, of which 10, such as Mandya, Betul, Parbhani, and Rangareddy, were recognised with a Padma Award for the first time. At least 48 winners were above 80.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah congratulated the recipients.In a post on X, he said: “They are the torchbearers of social change who, with their exceptional accomplishments, game-changing innovations, and tireless commitment, have driven national progress in different fields. These awards bear the signature of PM Shri @narendramodi Ji’s vision to turn People’s Padma into a medium to strengthen the spirit of nation building by inspiring millions to follow the path of making social change for the better.”
Among the unsung heroes were Techi Gubin from Arunachal Pradesh, who led people in over 90 border villages to hoist the Tricolour. “The PM has said that villages along the border are not the country’s last villages but the first. I want to spread the feeling of nationalism across the country. I have been to villages along the Myanmar and Bhutan borders. The award announced today is not for me but for all people of Arunachal Pradesh who live on the border and act as the country’s eyes and ears.”
