India’s highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna 2024, presented to LK Advani at his Delhi home

GG News Bureau

New Delhi, 31st March.The nation’s highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna, was given to veteran politician Lal Krishna Advani today (March 31) by President Droupadi Murmui.

Leading member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), LK Advani, received the coveted award from President Murmu during a visit to his home. This decision was made with LK Advani’s failing health in mind.

On the occasion were JP Nadda, national president of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

https://x.com/ANI/status/1774325214240965012?s=20

PM Modi declared earlier in February that the senior BJP leader would receive the Bharat Ratna.Using social media, Prime Minister Modi declared that the former Union Minister had made a huge contribution to India’s development.

“I’m delighted to announce that LK Advani will receive the Bharat Ratna award. In our conversation, I also congratulated him on receiving this honor. He is regarded as one of the greatest statesmen of our day and has made a significant contribution to India’s development. His career began at the bottom and he rose to become our Deputy Prime Minister, serving the country. He made a name for himself as both our Home Minister and our Minister of I&B. His parliamentary interventions have consistently been outstanding and insightful, the PM wrote on X.

Advani was born on November 8, 1927, in Karachi, Pakistan. He has been the President of the Bharatiya Janata Party since its founding in 1980, holding the position for the longest.

He concluded a nearly three-decade career in parliament by serving as Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s home minister and then deputy prime minister (1999–2004). Advani is recognized by many as a person of exceptional intelligence, moral character, and unwavering support for the notion of a powerful and affluent India. Advani has “never compromised on his core belief in nationalism, and yet has displayed flexibility in political responses whenever it was demanded by the situation,” as Atal Bihari Vajpayee has confirmed.

Tallest BJP leader who orchestrated the party’s ascent

Lal Krishna Advani, better known by his stage name LK Advani, is regarded as one of the tallest BJP leaders, having written the script for the party’s ascent from obscurity to prominence. The BJP was thrust into national politics following his Rath Yatra in the 1990s.

Over the years, LK Advani presided over the BJP for the longest duration since the party’s founding in 1980. LK Advani concluded a nearly three-decade career in parliament by serving as Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s home minister and then Deputy Prime Minister (1999–2004).

Educational Qualification

Due to the Partition, LK Advani, who was born in Karachi, British India (now in Pakistan), on November 8, 1927, immigrated to India. He studied law at the Government Law College in Mumbai after earning his degree from the DG National College in Hyderabad. In 1947, he joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and assumed leadership of its activities in Rajasthan.

LK Advani was appointed Secretary of the Rajasthan unit of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS), the political wing of the RSS, by Syama Prasad Mookerjee in 1951. He held this position until 1970.

Career in politics

He also served as Assistant Editor of the Jana Sangh’s political journal, the Organiser, from 1960 to 1967. He joined the party’s Delhi unit in 1970 to get closer to the epicenter of all political activity in the nation.

He joined the Rajya Sabha in 1970 and remained a member until 1989. After winning election, he led the BJS until 1977, when he left the position to take on the role of Information and Broadcasting Minister for the coalition Janata Party.

He eliminated press censorship, overturned all anti-press laws passed during the Emergency, and institutionalized changes to protect media freedom while serving as a Minister. A large portion of the party’s members, led by LK Advani and Atal Bihari Vajpayee, founded the BJP in 1980 as a result of the fall of the Moraji Desai government and the BJS that followed. In the 1990s, LK Advani conducted a number of rath yatras throughout India in an effort to popularize the party and raise awareness of its goals. In 1998, he was chosen to represent Gandhinagar, Gujarat, in the Lok Sabha.

LK Advani served as the coalition government led by the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Union Home Minister twice before being appointed Deputy Prime Minister in 2002. After his party lost the 2004 general elections, he was elected to the Lok Sabha as Leader of the Opposition.

Following the party’s defeat in the 2009 general election, LK Advani resigned from his Cabinet post as the party’s prime ministerial candidate. The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared on February 3, 2024, that LK Advani would receive the esteemed Bharat Ratna award.