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Vilayat Khan turns down Padma Vibhushan

Ustad Vilayat Khan has turned down India's second highest civilian award, the Padma Vibushan. He said the award was belated, and therefore "an insult". The Indian government announced the award on the eve of Republic Day, January 26. The ustad was abroad when the announcement was made. On February 6, after he returned to India, he told a press conference in Calcutta that there was "too much politics, favouritism and lobbying" in music. He had earlier told a news agency he would refuse the award for "personal reasons". Vilayat Khan has been performing for the last 67 years. "Six generations of my family have made sitar their religion and today the entire nation is copying our work," he said. He did not directly criticise the award of the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour, for Pandit Ravi Shankar, but said Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, "a junior", had already received the Padma Vibushan. "The award is be