The decision was announced in December last year by the government of India that the former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee would receive the Bharat Ratna Award, the highest civilian honour in India for this year. Of late, it has been announced that he will receive the award on March 27, 2015 and as the ailing 90-year-old veteran BJP leader is confined to bed, the protocol will be exempted and President Pranab Mukherjee will visit him and confer the award.