It must be remembered that the socialist stalwart Karpoori Thakur was honoured with Bharat Ratna at least 20 days ahead of conferring Advani with the nation’s top civilian prize. No doubt it is the discretion of the rulers, who they should honour or reward keeping in mind their political relevance. In both the cases, the political imperative ranked higher than any other reason. In the past two most important Indians, who helped the country earn global recognition and prestige—Homi Bhabha and Vikram Sarabhai—were not conferred with this honour. People felt immensely hurt. But it did not move the political institution and the rulers. There are many other stalwarts who have been denied this honour.

Of the two, let us begin with Karpoori Thakur. He might not have been bestowed with this honour, if Modi had not faced with an electoral ambiguity. Modi and RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, during ten years of BJP rule, have been pursuing the task of reaching out to the OBCs, EBCs, and Dalits. They have been clubbed under the Hindu fraternity. Modi and RSS strongly nursed the view that the consecration of Ram Mandir would win over these groups and make sure they vote for the BJP. Since that didn’t seem to be the case, the saffron leadership changed their tack.

Their desperation was so acute that the person who they treated as a pariah and for whom the door of the party was shut, as publicly announced by Modi’s lieutenant Amit Shah, Nitish Kumar, was once again won over and projected as the hero of the backwards. In fact, Thakur was offered Bharat Ratna at the behest of Nitish, for simply galvanising and bolstering his image. For Modi, image matters most and people of India notwithstanding facing acute poverty and loss of job, would prefer to vote on image syndrome. Bhagwat and Modi have attempted to appropriate Thakur by honouring him.

But the case with nonagenarian BJP leader L K Advani is quite different. Even after virtually leading the life of an outcast in the party for a decade now, and being completely marginalised in the saffron ecology by RSS, Modi rewarding Bharat Ratna to Advani has wider implications. If Modi had not honoured Thakur, he might not have to reward Advani. Modi acknowledging Thakur’s legacy enraged a significant section of the party rank and file. After Advani was pushed to the club of Margdarshaks, these leaders kept quiet. But for the first time, simmering discontent emerged after Modi ignored Advani on January 22, at the event of Ram Temple consecration, the fruition of Advani’s life’s work, as it were, from where the saffron stalwart was conspicuously absent.

After honouring of Thakur, not only BJP leaders and cadres but also a section of the RSS cadres questioned Modi’s motives. They conveyed their anguish to Bhagwat and even said that it would not be feasible to undertake electoral responsibilities in the prevailing political scenario. “Let Modi just use his image and win the elections” was their clear message. Already the senior leaders of the BJP were feeling slighted at the manner in which Advani was being treated by RSS and Modi.

It is an open secret that the party is vertically split in almost all the states, between the turncoats and old loyal cadres. Some senior leaders openly criticise Modi’s mechanism to terrorise his political rivals by using ED, CBI and IT against them. They firmly hold that the strategy pursued by Modi has been basically against the ethos and culture of the BJP. These leaders nevertheless are highly critical of the RSS leadership. They point out that the BJP could not have come to power in 2014, if Advani had not embarked on Rath Yatra in 1992. He has been pushed to the periphery, and what was worse, his contribution to the party’s growth and expansion was not being acknowledged. In the past they did not raise their voice. But it is Advani’s complete neglect that has forced them to speak out.

Nonetheless, the party leaders also hold the view that since the BJP is depending on the slogan of Hindutva and religious issues to woo the voters, so projecting Advani as the old face of Hindutva would benefit it electorally. They also say that how could Modi forget the fact that Advani had saved him from being sacked as chief minister of Gujarat in 2002. Of course, while Advani had opposed Modi from being declared as the prime ministerial candidate for 2014 election, the fact cannot be ignored that at the Goa national executive meet, he had projected him for the task.

Ever since Advani praised Jinnah, the RSS leaders had turned hostile towards him. His comments on Jinnah’s secularism in 2005 drew sharp criticism from the party. They sent Sanjay Joshi to the Delhi to demand that Advani withdraw his comments. Organisational records point out that Advani had resigned at least seven times for his audacity to go against the wishes of RSS. All the BJP leaders stood together on the issue of "no deviation from ideology" and went along with the RSS position that there could be no question of re-evaluating Jinnah or his role in Partition.

During Advani’s visit to Pakistan in 2005, he had signed the visitor's book with a flourish and asked his speechwriter Sudheendra Kulkarni to fax a copy of his defining words he had scribbled to his Delhi residence and release to the media. Though RSS was quite cut up, Advani maintained: "I have not said or done anything in Pakistan which I need to retract or review".

What is quite interesting to watch that RSS has not been inclined to project him as the Hindutva face of the party, but it did not at any stage condemn his Rath Yatra which triggered countrywide communal riots, in which not fewer than 2000 persons, mostly Muslims, were killed. Almost all the senior leaders who were suspect in the eyes of Modi were shown the door. In August, 2014, Advani, still an MP, was thrown out of the BJP Parliamentary Board, along with veteran leader Murli Manohar Joshi. In June 2015, Advani said, Emergency could not be ruled out “as forces that can crush democracy have become stronger”. However, the then Finance Minister Arun Jaitley came to the rescue of Modi saying at an event, without naming Advani, that Emergency was no longer possible.

It is entirely wrong a notion Modi was trying to take out Advani from the dubious Margdarshak Mandal and resurrect him by conferring him with the Bharat Ratna. It is purely an attempt to calm down the anger gripping the rank and file against discrimination meted out to him, just ahead of Lok Sabha election. Modi and Bhagwat have come to comprehend that the resentment and disgust prevailing in the rank and file would inflict danger to the party’s electoral prospect.

Incidentally, Advani had moved the resolution for construction of Ram Mandir at Palampur meet of the two-day national executive meeting of the party held in 1989, after nine years of the formation of BJP. Advani had moved the resolution in the presence of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Sushma Swaraj, Murli Manohar Joshi and Vijayaraje Scindia. Ironically, both Joshi and Scindia had been sidelined. It was just after the meeting that Advani piloted his majoritarian narrative of Hindutva by launching Rath Yatra in 1992.

Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday took a succinct jibe at the BJP saying that Advani was being presented the Bharat Ratna so that the saffron party's "votes do not get scattered. It is not being given in respect.” (IPA Service)