Some of the bestowals of the Padma Bhushan have been refused or returned by the recipients. A Bengali theatre activist Sisir 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 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."