Last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that BJP supremo LK Advani would be conferred with the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian award. In a tweet on X, Modi called him “one of the most respected statesmen of our time” whose contributions to India’s development have been “monumental”.

This came days after President Droupadi Murmu announced that socialist icon and former Bihar chief minister Karpoori Thakur would receive the Bharat Ratna too.

Over the years, Modi’s “sidelining” of Advani has often been a topic of discussion for the media. Most recently, the Ram Mandir trust said Advani “shouldn’t come” for the temple consecration due to his “age” – though Advani was later extended an invite, which he declined.

So, unsurprisingly, the selection of Advani was discussed in editorials in leading English newspapers.

The Telegraph’s editorial this morning pointed out that governments often use the Bharat Ratna “to not only reward one of their own but also co-opt those outside their fold”.

“There has been an attempt to describe the decision to honour Mr Advani as an example of Narendra Modi’s magnanimity towards his mentor,” it said. “...The claims of magnanimity notwithstanding, Mr Modi’s instrumental use of Mr Advani is a matter of public accord...The Ram temple’s inauguration is now integral to Mr Modi’s campaign to win a third term in office. Little wonder then that Mr Advani, the architect of the Ayodhya chapter, has dawned on the prime minister’s consciousness.”

And by choosing Thakur as well, The Telegraph said the BJP could now “curate a careful balancing act between the themes of mandir and Mandal”.

“This blending of the themes of social justice, of which Mr Thakur was a champion, and Hindutva, if it does succeed, would not only be a formidable political strategy to mobilise disparate vote blocs but also blunt the Opposition’s attempts to weaken the appeal of majoritarian Hindutva with a counter-mobilisation of India’s disadvantage social groups,” it said.

The Hindu too had an editorial this morning that said the “the choice of past leaders for Bharat Ratnas is in tune with politics of the present”.

Citing previous recipients like AB Vajpayee, Madan Mohan Malaviya and Pranab Mukherjee, the editorial said: “All these selections are in tune with the politics of the present – and how the history of the Bharat Ratna has always been. All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam founder MG Ramachandran and BR Ambedkar were also conferred the award in the hope that their followers would, in turn, back the party or alliance ruling at the Centre.”

As for Advani and Thakur, they “represent the two legs of BJP politics, namely Hindu consolidation and higher representation for intermediate castes in all fields”.

Indian Express had struck the same note in its editorial last week, saying the two awards “help the BJP to symbolically fold in both Mandal and Mandir”.

By giving the award to Advani, the BJP “sends out a message of its continuing inventiveness in sending out messages. It has shown political dexterity earlier in deploying the Ratna. But in a time when spaces of grace and generosity are shrinking in politics, not without the active contribution and complicity of the BJP, with this high award to someone seen as a mentor who also raised concerns, Prime Minister Narendra Modi sets an example even as he scores a political point.”

‘Just another normalisation of Hindutva’

Other newspapers struck a different tone.

The Hindustan Times editorial yesterday, for instance, lauded the Bharat Ratna to Advani as “an acknowledgement of Advani's seminal role in the making of the temple”. It did note that this was also a moment to “revisit the unfinished debate, whose origins are in the troubling relationship Hindutva has with the idea of secular nationalism”.

Similarly, The New Indian Express tread the same ground with its editorial on February 4, headlined “Bharat Ratna well deserved for BJP icon Advani”. “The Bharat Ratna is a fitting award for a life lived well in the service of the nation,” it said.

Chennai-based DT Next, however, called the announcement “just another signal of the normalisation of Hindutva”, perhaps because the RSS’s centenary is in 2025 and “much remains to be done”. It noted that Advani himself remembered the Babri Masjid demolition as a “terrible day”, so the “irony of this honour is that the recipient’s pride is likely to have at least a shade of embarrassment”.

In Hyderabad, Telangana Today’s editorial on February 4 said Advani’s legacy is “complex, multi-layered and open to diverse interpretations”. Many “adore him” for paving the way for the “cultural awakening of Hindus”, but others “hold him responsible for polarisation and communal violence in the aftermath of the demolition”.

“The timing of conferring Bharat Ratna to Advani, close on the heels of Ram temple inauguration, is quite significant. It is a calculated strategy to mollify millions of believers who strongly feel that Advani was not given his due despite being a pioneer of the Ramjanmabhoomi movement,” it said. “Conferring the country’s highest civilian honour is expected to silence the criticism that Modi has ignored Advani’s contribution in realising the temple dream.”

This report was published with AI assistance.

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