Advani adorns Bharat Ratna

In a way it is fitting and proper that L K Advani should have been honoured with the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian award, within days of the consecration ceremony of the Ram temple in Ayodhya. If Narendra Modi facilitated a successful end to the long struggle for the temple in Ayodhya, it was Advani who had mainstreamed a fringe movement for the construction of the temple to Ram at the very site which Hindus believe was his birthplace. Also it is Advani to whom goes the credit for making Hindus proud of their religion, their cultural heritage, inspiring them to shed the defensiveness and insecurities engendered by the entitled liberal-left-secularist crowd patronised by the Congress Party in the early decades of the Republic. Advani infused a new life and energy in the BJP, bringing it centre-stage from the margins of Opposition politics, eventually helping it to eject the Congress from power. A RSS pracharak, on his secondment to the Jan Sangh, the previous avatar of the BJP, Advani soon came to lead the party. While Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the popular face of the Jan Sangh-BJP, for years Advani was the organisational man, strengthening and expanding the party structures nation-wide. Not until the launch of the Ram Rath Yatra did Advani emerge from the shadows of Vajpayee. Interestingly, Modi at the time of the start of the Mandir campaign was a little known BJP functionary. Years later, Advani would come to his rescue when following the outbreak of the riots sparked by the burning to death of over 50 Ram devotees at the Godhra railway station, Prime Minister Vajpayee wanted him removed as Gujarat Chief Minister. However ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha election when Modi staked the claim to lead the BJP campaign, it was Advani who resisted him, hoping that after his rejection in the 2009 election he could still try one more time to realise his prime ministerial ambitions. It was not to be. Modi virtually sidelined Advani, anointing him with the high-sounding title of ~Marg Darshak.~ Since then, Advani has kept himself aloof from politics, never uttering a word against Modi or anyone else in the BJP, a proof of a disciplined Sangh Parivar member who whatever the differences, personal or political, seldom air them publicly. At 96, Advani is showing signs of aging, albeit of aging well. Disciplined in his private life as well, he has the satisfaction of not ever breaching the Lakshman Rekha of personal integrity. Despite occupying high political office, not a whiff of scandal tarred Advani’s sterling character. The Bharat Ratna is embellished by its conferment on Lal Krishna Advani.