Prime Minister Narendra Modi announce to confer the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian award, to LK Advani, in an attempt to keep the Ram Mandir momentum intact and also to happy a section of the angry RSS-BJP workers over the treatment given to LK Advani, right up to Ram Lalla’s consecration ceremony.
PM Modi or other BJP functionary, didn’t refer to LK Advani’s contributions even once in their speeches before or after the consecration ceremony that took place on 22nd January 2024 in Ayodhya.
As LK Advani, 96, stay away citing ill health, there were already many speculations doing the rounds as none of the top BJP functionaries reach out to him to attend the consecration ceremony.
That was despite the controversy over the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) senior leader Champat Rai’s statement that it was due to LK Advani’s advanced age that he had advise to not come to Ayodhya.
So, following backlash from party cadres, senior members of the VHP and the RSS extend an invitation to the veteran leader to attend the event.
The sentiments of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh have also play a part in this decision.
LK Advani did not participate in temple Prana Pratishtha programme with his family citing bad weather as reason for his non participation but many in VHP-Sangh cadre said that it was prime minister show and that is why LK Advani skip the programme
To recall, it was LK Advani’s Rath Yatra which laid the foundation of the BJP resurgence in the 1990s against former prime minister V.P. Singh’s Mandal politics as well as also pave the path of the BJP’s rise from two Lok Sabha seats to the largest party now.
Beginning from Gujarat’s Somnath, LK Advani’s yatra was the part of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement that firmly establish the BJP in the Hindi belt.
In a post share on social media platform X, the prime minister wrote that he felt privileged to have interact with and learnt from Advani.
The conferring of the Bharat Ratna on him is an “emotional moment”, PM Modi said.
I am very happy to share that Shri LK Advani Ji will be conferred the Bharat Ratna. I also spoke to him and congratulated him on being conferred this honour. One of the most respected statesmen of our times, his contribution to the development of India is monumental. His is a… pic.twitter.com/Ya78qjJbPK
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) February 3, 2024
As not just LK Advani, even Murli Manohar Joshi had missing from the list of invitees to who were invited to Ayodhya, As a controversy arise over their absence, many RSS and VHP leaders met LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi to invite them to the ceremony but both leaders decline the invites.
After coming from Rajasthan during Jana Sangh years in 1950, LK Advani and former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee work together for 5 decades that saw them firmly entrench the BJP in the country’s political consciousness.
In this process, LK Advani earn the sobriquet of the ‘Loh Purush’ or Iron Man of the BJP.
In his autobiography ‘My Country My Life’, LK Advani mentions he had only two disagreements with Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
One was the Ram mandir agitation and another was on the 2002 Godhra riots.
While Atal Bihari Vajpayee want the resignation of then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, it was LK Advani who came to his rescue.
In 2014, the BJP’s veteran leader propose the name of Narendra Modi for the prime minister post.
The whole credit of Ram Janmabhoomi agitation goes to LK Advani, Vijay Katiyar, one of the pioneer leaders of the Ram temple agitation, once said.
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari also welcome the decision and mention how he had learnt from the LK Advani.
Nitin Gadkari Said :
“Atal Bihari Vajpayee and he play an important role in the expansion of the BJP…I was fortunate to get guidance from Advani ji when I became the party president in 2009. His life is an open book of probity in public life.”
RRD’s Opinion
What I think that it was a sign of PM Modi correcting “his anomalies”.
PM Modi after becoming the prime minister, did not push for the president post for LK Advani which he deserve.
Conferring Bharat Ratna shows he is correcting anomalies and cementing his position to show gratitude among cadres and people.
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