Some of the bestowals of the Padma Bhushan have been refused or returned by the recipients . A Bengali theatre activist Sisir Kumar Bhaduri ( 1959 ) was the first awardee who refused their conferment as " he felt state awards merely help create a sycophantic brigade " and " did not want to encourage the impression that the government was serious about the importance of theatre in national life . " Sitar player Vilayat Khan declined to accept the award in 1968 , with him stating that " the selection committees were incompetent to judge his music . " Khan had earlier refused Padma Shri in 1964 and later also turned down Padma Vibhushan in 2000 . Journalist Nikhil Chakravarty rejected the award in 1990 stating that the " journalists should not be identified with the establishment . " Historian Romila Thapar refused to accept the award twice , for the first time in 1992 , and later again in 2005 , stating that she would accept awards only " from academic institutions or those associated with my professional work . " For her 2005 bestowal , Thapar sent a clarification letter to the then President A. P. J. Abdul Kalam mentioning that she had declined to accept the award when the Ministry of Human Resource Development had contacted her three month prior to the award announcement and had explained her reasons for not accepting the award . Journalist and civil servant K. Subrahmanyam also refused his 1999 bestowal citing that " bureaucrats and journalists should not accept any award from the government because they are more liable to be favoured . " In 2003 , Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sanghs ( RSS ) volunteer Dattopant Thengadi rejected the award until K. B. Hedgewar ( RSS founder ) and M. S. Golwalkar ( RSS ideologue ) are offered the Bharat Ratna . Civil servant S. R. Sankaran turned down the award in 2005 without citing any reason . In 2013 , playback singer S. Janaki refused to accept her award and stated that " the award has come late in her five-and-half-decade long career . " The singer also mentioned that she is not against the Government and expressed happiness for the recognition but requested the Government to " show some more consideration to the artists from the southern parts of the country . " In 2014 , family members of J. S. Verma who served as 27th Chief Justice of India refused the posthumous conferral stating that " Verma himself would not have accepted " the honour as he " never hankered or lobbied for any acclaim , reward or favour . " Kannada novelists K. Shivaram Karanth , who was awarded in 1968 , returned his award to protest against the Emergency declared in the country in 1975 . Novelist Khushwant Singh , who accepted the award in 1974 in the field of literature and education , returned it in 1984 as a notion of protest against the Operation Blue Star . Singh was later awarded with Padma Vibhushan in 2007 . Pushpa Mittra Bhargava , 1986 recipient and scientist and founder-director of Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology ( CCMB ) , returned his award in 2015 in protest of the Dadri mob lynching and out of concern at the " prevailing socio-politico situation " in the country
Dadri mob lynching
2015 Dadri mob lynching
Padma Bhushan