Tarun Gogoi seeks Bharat Ratna for Bhupen Hazarika

GUWAHATI: Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to confer Bharat Ratna on cultural icon Dr Bhupen Hazarika posthumously.

Gogoi, in a letter to the Prime Minister, made the request to confer the country’s highest civilian honour to Dr Hazarika posthumously. “I have written to the Prime Minister asking him to consider Dr Hazarika for Bharat Ratna. I will also personally take up the matter with the Prime Minister.”

Gogoi had also approached the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the matter in 2011. The demand to honour Dr Hazarika with the Bharat Ratna was raised by the state legislative assembly, and fans across the State after his death in November 2011.

Dr Hazarika was conferred the second highest civilian honour, Padma Vibhushan in 2012. He was honoured with the Dadasaheb Phalke award for lifetime contribution to development of Indian cinema in 1993.