Lal Krishna Advani, 96, co-founder of the ruling Hindu-nationalist BJP is accorded India\u2019s Bharat Ratna medal
\n New Delhi
\nIndia\u2019s prime minister praised Sunday the \u201cpivotal role\u201d of the firebrand leader credited with propelling Hindu nationalism into a dominant political force, after he was awarded the top civilian honour.
\nLal Krishna Advani, 96, a co-founder of the ruling Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) \u2014 which hopes to win a third term in general elections beginning April 19 \u2014 was accorded India\u2019s Bharat Ratna medal.
\n\u201cHis honour is a recognition of his enduring contributions to our nation\u2019s progress,\u201d Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on X, formerly Twitter, where he posted a photograph of him clasping Advani\u2019s hand after the white-ribboned medal was put around his neck.
\nAdvani was the lodestar of a movement dedicated to championing the rights of the majority religion in the officially secular country, and his stewardship carried it from society\u2019s fringes to the levers of state power.
\nIn 1990, he was a key figure in the campaign to build a temple to the deity Ram in the northern city of Ayodhya, which opened in January to popular Hindu celebrations.
\nThe temple was built on the site of a centuries-old mosque whose destruction by Hindu zealots in 1992 sparked sectarian riots that killed 2,000 people nationwide, most of them Muslims.
\n\u201cHis dedication to public service and his pivotal role in shaping modern India have left an indelible mark on our history,\u201d Modi added.
\n\u201cI am proud to have got the opportunity to work with him very closely over the last several decades.\u201d
\nNearly a billion Indians will vote to elect a new government in six-week-long parliamentary elections, the largest democratic exercise in the world.
\nAnalysts see Modi\u2019s re-election as a foregone conclusion, partly due to the resonance of his assertive Hindu-nationalist politics.
\nPresident Droupadi Murmu, who awarded the medal, called Advani a \u201cdoyen of Indian politics\u201d and praised him for his \u201clong and tireless struggle for India\u2019s cultural regeneration\u201d.
\nAdvani was born to a merchant family in 1927, at a time when British rule of the Indian subcontinent was reaching its twilight, and in his teens joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a right-wing group dedicated to championing Hindu culture.
\nYears spent building up the group\u2019s network eventually spurred him into parliament where he represented the RSS\u2019s political wing.
\nWhen prime minister Indira Gandhi suspended the constitution in 1975, fighting back efforts to force her resignation, Advani was one of many opposition lawmakers arrested.
\nReleased a year and a half later, within weeks he was appointed information minister when Indira\u2019s government was voted out. He then set about unwinding the culture of media censorship imposed during the state of emergency.
\nBut little bound the fractious coalition together beyond opposition to the administration it replaced, and it soon fell apart over ideological differences, partly because Advani and other lawmakers refused to renounce their RSS affiliations.
\nOut of office, Advani co-founded the BJP in 1980 as a vehicle to expand the beachhead for Hindu nationalism in parliament.
\nThe BJP steadily gained support as the country\u2019s stalled economy helped fuel increasing outbreaks of religious violence.
\nUnrest peaked in the early 1990s in a dispute over the Babri Masjid, a 16th-century mosque built during Mughal empire rule.
\nAdvani joined the nascent campaign to build a new temple at the site, touring the country in 1990 atop a truck refashioned to resemble a chariot.
\nReligious riots broke out around the country in the wake of the procession, leading to Advani\u2019s arrest, a move that precipitated the downfall of the government and substantial BJP gains in the next year\u2019s elections.
\nAdvani remained a mainstay of India\u2019s politics for another two decades, but his only campaign of similar consequence was his patronage of Modi, the man who would eventually succeed him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lal Krishna Advani, 96, co-founder of the ruling Hindu-nationalist BJP is accorded India\u2019s Bharat Ratna medal New Delhi India\u2019s prime minister praised Sunday the \u201cpivotal role\u201d of the firebrand leader credited with propelling Hindu nationalism into a dominant political force, after he was awarded the top civilian honour. Lal Krishna Advani, 96, a co-founder of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":397653,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-397639","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n