L K Advani next in line to get Bharat Ratna?
Five years after late Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, one of the two founding members of BJP including L K Advani, was conferred the coveted Bharat Ratna award there has been a rising demand within the ruling BJP for a similar gesture towards nonagenarian Advani who celebrated his 93rd birthday at his residence on Sunday in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi among others.
One to raise such a demand is senior BJP leader from Karnataka D H Shankaramurthy and scores of party workers from the State. In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi Shankaramurthy has urged him to bestow the prestigious award on L K Advani in view of his contribution to the party and the nation.
“As you are aware, Lal Krishna Advani has been in public life for over seven decades. His service, sacrifice and contribution to the cause of motherland through RS, Bharatiya Jana Sangh and BJP are something phenomenal. Impeccably clean and honest in his personal life, a leader with utmost credibility and a man with abundant knowledge and experience on national and international affairs, Advani is one such person of whom every one of us feels proud,” Shankaramurthy wrote.
Senior BJP leader from Karnataka further said in his letter to PM Modi that it was the desire of thousands of party workers to give away the award to L K Advani.
“It is the ardent desire of thousands of party workers in particular and people in general that Advani should be conferred with Bharat Ratna which he richly, rightly and eminently deserves in all respects…,” he said.
“I, on behalf of thousands of party workers in Karnataka request you to kindly confer Bharat Ratna on Advani,” Shankaramurthy added.
Shankaramurthy, in fact, is not the only leader to make a pitch for Bharat Ratna to L K Advani. In 2019, former BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha, in a series of tweets had sought to pitch for Advani.
Sinha had then referred to PM Modi’s first Mann ki Baat address of 2018 in which Modi credited his government for ensuring the prestigious award went to common people who “may not be seen in big cities but have done transformative work for society.”
Addressing Modi he tweeted, “Sir. You said that the Padma Awards are now given on merit. Is it like the cabinet positions? Where meritorious worthies like LK Advani, Jaswant Singh, Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie, Murli Manohar Joshi, yours truly & many others are left out in the cold. Any remedies?”
“I dare not speak my Mann Ki Baat. That brand name belongs exclusively to one person. So I can only indulge in Dil Ki Baat Sir & my heart says - LK Advani couldn’t be made PM, for reasons most of us know. He couldn't be made Home Minister, for reasons a few of us know,” Sinha tweeted.
“He (Advani) could not be made President - for reasons that you and I know very well. But Sir, surely he could have been honoured with the Bharat Ratna in this year’s Padma Awards. I do hope that my Dil ki Baat hasn't hurt anybody like Mann Ki Baat sometimes does,” Shatrughan Sinha had then tweeted.
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