A token of political gratitude

Advani prepared the ground for the Hindutva ideology and practice to become the major narrative of the country’s politics by driving the Ram temple movement with his Rath Yatra. Modi was a product of the political environment created by Advani.

The Narendra Modi government has balanced a political equation in the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and soon after conferring the Bharat Ratna award on Karpoori Thakur, by bestowing the same honour on L K Advani. If awarding Karpoori Thakur was a recognition of the importance of ‘Mandal’ politics, the honour for Advani was a reaffirmation of the ‘Kamandal’ core of the BJP. If Karpoori Thakur needed to be recalled to public memory for immediate electoral ends, the call of Advani to the Ratna pantheon was an act of thanksgiving. This was not just in the personal sense of Prime Minister Narendra Modi having to acknowledge the role in his own political rise of Advani who had, among other things, averted the dismissal of his government in Gujarat after the 2002 riots. Averted disasters and missed opportunities are part of the lives of all politicians. It would be idle to speculate on their consequences because they are part of the unpredictability and uncertainties of life as such. It may have eventually led to Advani missing the country’s most prime political position, but he had done much to ensure his place in contemporary history by then. 

It is that position that has been recognised by the conferment of the top civilian award on him. Advani prepared the ground for the Hindutva ideology and practice to become the major narrative of the country’s politics by driving the Ram temple movement with his Rath Yatra. No other yatra after Mahatma Gandhi’s Dandi Yatra has impacted the country’s history like Advani’s 1991 yatra from Someshwar to Ayodhya. He made the temple a potent symbol to rally around. The movement helped the BJP come to power first as a part of coalitions and then on its own at the Centre and in many states, and culminated in the consecration of the temple this year. It controversially sought to change the idea of India, and that was clear when Modi declared that the temple was at the centre of India’s nationhood. Advani is the ‘Ratna’ of that India, though it was for Narendra Modi to work out its details. Modi was a product of the political environment created by Advani, and he evolved in time to be what he is today. The award is a ‘tribute’ from Modi, who evolved, to Advani, who remained what he was, and it was political, not personal.

That again brings into focus the politicisation of national awards and honours by governments in power. The response to it is also revealing. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and some other Opposition leaders welcomed the award for Advani. Does that mean they considered it right to honour him for the politics that he practiced, or was the congratulation just personal courtesy?