Visva-Bharati may award the Deshikottama posthumously to Manna Dey, who passed away last month.

If the decision is finally taken, it will be the first incidence of the award being conferred posthumously.

It is the highest honour awarded by Visva-Bharati and earlier recipients include Satyajit Ray, pandit Ravishankar, Mother Teresa, Lata Mangeshkar and former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi who was also a student for a brief period when Tagore was at the helm.

The decision will be taken by the executive committee later this month.

The convocation is expected to be in December.

Earlier, it was decided that President of India Pranab Mukherjee would hand over the certificates during the convocation.

The names of all persons who would be receiving the Deshikottama was finalised earlier.

Besides Manna Dey, others selected for Deshikottama were Nobel peace prize winner and Myanmar’s flame of democracy Aung San Suu Kyi, former Bhutan king Jigme Singye Wangchuk, Chinese scholar Tan Chung, space scientist Dr K Kasturirangan and filmmaker Adoor Gopalkrishnan.

But after the demise of Manna Dey, his inclusion needs to be freshly looked at.

“If the statute of the university does not allow posthumous presentation of Deshikottam, then the rules will have to be revised. An application will be sent to Prime Minister Monmohan Singh, who is our chancellor,” a senior VB official told HT.

Now the authorities are planning to place the proposal before the executive council. If the proposal is passed then the university has to apply to the PMO.

source: http://www.hindustantimes.com / Hindustan Times / Home> India-News> Kolkata / by Surojit Ghosh Hazra, Hindustan Times / Kolkata – November 07th, 2013