Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday announced the Bharat Ratna for BJP veteran L.K. Advani, who led the Ram temple movement of the late ’80s and early ’90s that resulted in the demolition of the Babri Masjid and sparked communal riots nationwide but transformed the BJP’s political fortunes.

Honouring the 96-year-old, now sidelined in the party, appeared an afterthought on Modi’s part since it came 10 days after the award of the Bharat Ratna to Karpoori Thakur, the late socialist icon from Bihar. Rarely has the country’s highest civilian award been announced on two dates in the same calendar year.

While the award for Thakur, a staunch Lohiaite whose politics was opposed to both the Congress’s and the BJP’s, was seen as an overture to backward castes and a countermeasure to the Opposition’s caste census agenda, the one for Advani appears a pre-poll boost for the Ram temple narrative.

The move comes days after the spectacular Ram temple consecration in Ayodhya where Modi hogged the limelight while Advani, the man who made it all possible, seemed to have been deliberately kept away.

The veteran was first asked by the organisers to stay away from the event given his age. After this caused some controversy, he was invited. But he chose not to come, using “harsh weather” as the excuse.

Modi broke the news on the X platform, heaping praise on the former mentor and party patriarch whom he had, after becoming Prime Minister in 2014, systematically pushed to the margins.

The communiqué from the President’s House came after Modi’s announcement.

“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,” Modi posted in the morning.

He described Advani as “one of the most respected statesmen of our times” who had made a “monumental” contribution to the development of India.

Yet, just months after Modi assumed power at the Centre in May 2014 and tightened
his grip on the party, Advani had been dropped from the BJP parliamentary board, the party’s highest decision-making body.

Then BJP president Amit Shah announced the formation of a new body, the Margdarshak Mandal, with Advani and some other party seniors as members. The body, supposed to “guide” the party, has not held a single meeting so far.

When the 2019 general election came, Advani was denied the chance to contest from Gandhinagar in Gujarat, a constituency he had represented multiple times. Shah was fielded from the seat. Advani eventually did not contest the election.

Since 2019, Advani has been mostly confined to his home, the official bungalow in Delhi that he occupied as Deputy Prime Minister and home minister and which the government has been courteous enough not to ask him to vacate.

Many in the party have consistently justified the sidelining of Advani as a natural consequence of his open opposition to Modi’s nomination as prime ministerial candidate in 2013. On Saturday, the consensus was that by honouring Advani, Modi had showcased himself as a “magnanimous” leader.

Advani and Modi share a “guru-chela” (mentor-protégé) trajectory where the chela eventually outshines the guru. Modi had been chosen as the “charioteer” when Advani launched his Rath Yatra in 1990 from Somnath toAyodhya to press for a Ram temple at the site of the Babri Masjid.

While leaving a bloody trail of communal violence, the programme thrust the Ram temple into the popular consciousness and propelled the BJP’s rise to power.

Advani is said to have played a key role in not just launching Modi’s political career but also saving him when he came close to being knocked off the Gujarat chief minister’s chair following the 2002 communal riots.

Disappointed at Modi’s alleged role in allowing the riots to spiral, then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee is said to have made up his mind to sack him. But Advani is understood to have vetoed the move. There was no stopping Modi after that.

The same Advani, however, felt “anguished” and “disappointed” when Modi forced the party to nominate him in 2013 as its prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 general election. Advani had stayed away from the party meeting in Goa where Modi wasnominated and made his opposition known by releasing a letter.

Since then, Advani has found himself in the cold, his isolation broken only by the occasional photo-op visits by Modi and some others to greet him on his birthdays.

On Saturday, the ailing Advani greeted reporters from a distance at his residence. Daughter Pratibha Advani said he had thanked Modi and the people of the country.

“He is very overwhelmed. He is a man of few words but he has tears in his eyes. He has this joy and satisfaction that he dedicated his entire life in service of the nation,” Pratibha said.

In a statement later, Advani said he accepted the award with “humility and gratitude” and that it was “not only an honour for me as a person but also for the ideals and principles that I strove to serve throughout my life”.

He remembered BJP ideologue Deendayal Upadhyaya and his late party colleague Vajpayee — also a Bharat Ratna — and thanked the BJP and RSS cadres he had worked with. He also thanked President Droupadi Murmu and Modi for the honour.

Party leaders who rarely paid a visit to Advani fearing it could earn them a black mark, showered praise on the veteran after Modi’s announcement.

Defence minister Rajnath Singh, who had as BJP president in 2013 played a key role in getting Modi nominated as prime ministerial candidate against Advani’s wishes, expressed “joy and happiness” and termed Advani a “revered leader”.

“He (Advani) is a symbol of purity, dedication and determination in politics,” Rajnath said.

“Advani ji has been dedicated to serving the country and his countrymen selflessly,” Shah posted on social media. “His immense contribution towards the party and ideology cannot be summed up in words.”

Modi, in his post, said: “Advani Ji’s decades-long service in public life has been marked by an unwavering commitment to transparency and integrity, setting an exemplary standard in political ethics. He has made unparalleled efforts towards furthering national unity and cultural resurgence.”

He added that this was “a very emotional moment” for him.