Mahtab, Azad, Najma to receive Outstanding Parliamentarian Awards

Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, Trinamool Congress leader Dinesh Trivedi and BJD leader Bhratruhari Mahtab were among the five MPs chosen for the Outstanding Parliamentarian Award.

While Mahtab will be conferred the Award for 2017, Trivedi will receive the honours for 2016 and Azad, the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha will get the award for 2015.

Former Rajya Sabha member Najma Heptullah has been chosen for the award for the year 2013, while BJP Lok Sabha member Hukumdev Narayan Yadav will get the award for 2014.

The Indian Parliamentary Group gives away the awards every year. However, instead of announcing awards every year, the Group usually clubs the award for four or more years.

This year the Awards were announced for the last five years.

The awardees were shortlisted by a Committee chaired by Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and other members including Home Minister Rajnath Singh, BJP veteran L K Advani, Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha P J Kurien, Congress leader Karan Singh and Ram Bhadur Rai, Chairman of the Indira Gandhi National Centre For Arts.

The awardees have been selected on the basis of their experience, debating skills, awareness of issues and the depth with which issues were raised, an official said.

The committee also considered the member's adherence to the rules of procedure, maintenance of dignity and contribution in parliamentary committees among others.

The awards were instituted in 1995 and past recipients include former prime ministers Chandra Shekhar and Manmohan Singh, former president Pranab Mukherjee, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, former Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar and Advani among others.