LK Advani Gets Bharat Ratna: All About His Life, Political Career, Contribution to BJP

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on Saturday that veteran BJP leader and former deputy prime minister LK Advani will be conferred the Bharat Ratna, the country’s highest civilian award.

The Prime Minister made the announcement on X (formerly Twitter) saying he is very happy to share that 96-year-old Advani will be conferred the honour.

“One of the most respected statesmen of our times, his contribution to the development of India is monumental. His is a life that started from working at the grassroots to serving the nation as our Deputy Prime Minister," Modi said on X.

Here is all you need to know about Lal Krishna Advani:

1. Lal Krishna Advani was born on November 8, 1927 in Karachi in the undivided India in a Sindhi family. As a student in St Patrick’s School, Karachi, his patriotic ideals inspired him to join the Rashtriya Swayamasevak Sangh (RSS) at the age of fourteen in 1941.
2. He was forced to migrate to Delhi during the Partition of the country and became an RSS pracharak in Rajasthan. Soft-spoken and mild mannered Advani became the face of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement.
3. During his initial political career, Advani became part of BJP’s predecessor Jana Sangh in 1951, formed by Syama Prasad Mookerjee. He was appointed as the secretary of the party’s Rajasthan unit and in 1957 he was shifted to Delhi to assist Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
4. He became a member of the Rajya Sabha in 1970 and held his seat till 1989. In December 1972, he was elected president of Bharatiya Jana Sangh.
5. Advani became the face of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement in the late 1980 that shaped, and continues to define the saffron party’s electoral and political fortunes.
6. Together with Vajpayee, he went on to build the BJP brick by brick and orchestrated its steep rise in the 1990s. In the late 1980s and the 1990s, he focused on building the BJP into a national political force and the results reflected in the 1989 General Election. BJP bounced back from 2 seats in 1984 to 86 seats in 1989.
7. He served as the President of the Bharatiya Janata Party for the longest period since its inception in 1980, according to the party’s website.
8. A 10-term parliamentarian, Advani has also served as the home minister and deputy prime minister and has been a key figure in the BJP’s evolution.
9. In the 2009 general elections, Advani projected himself as the PM candidate, despite many leaders unsupportive of the move. The BJP suffered a resounding defeat to the Congress-led UPA in the 2009 polls and impacted Advani’s stature and position within the party.
10. The 96-year-old leader was made a member of the ‘Margdarshak Mandal’ after the BJP won the election under Narendra Modi in 2014.

The Bharat Ratna has been bestowed on Advani in a year of the Ram temple’s consecration, which marks a triumphant closure for the BJP of an issue which was thrust into popular consciousness by the veteran leader through his ‘Ram Rath Yatra’ in 1990. The yatra and the mass appeal it drew boosted the party’s vote share and made it the key challenger to the Congress, then the biggest national party.

(With inputs from PTI)