Prime Minister Narendra Modi with veteran BJP leader L K Advani, in New Delhi.
Credit: PTI File Photo
The Narendra Modi government recently announced, all within a month, for bestowing the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian honour, on five people: former Chief Minister of Bihar late Karpoori Thakur, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L K Advani, former Prime Ministers Charan Singh and P V Narasimha Rao, and agricultural scientist M S Swaminathan. That this has happened just four months before the 2024 general elections raises suspicions about the ruling BJP‘s political calculations behind the move and is truly unprecedented.
BJP’s 2019 template
In announcing these awards shortly before the polls, the BJP is replicating a tactic it used just before the 2019 Maharashtra assembly polls, where in its election manifesto the national party promised that upon winning it would confer the Bharat Ratna on V D Savarkar, Jyotiba Phule and Savitribai Phule. There is no parallel in the history of Independent India to the BJP’s promise of the Bharat Ratna for a political party’s electoral gains. Such politicisation of India’s highest civilian honour is tragic, and demonstrates the extent to which it is used in pursuance of the ruling party’s partisan electoral objectives.
Effect in Hindi heartland
The BJP is reusing this template in 2024, where first Thakur’s name was announced for the highest civilian honour in recognition of his historic role in reserving jobs in Bihar for Other Backward Classes (OBC) in government jobs in the late 1970s, way before the Mandal Commission recommendations for reserving 27 per cent jobs for OBCs were implemented. Its political and electoral dimension was manifested glaringly when Nitish Kumar, Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal (United) leader, ditched Mahagathbandhan coalition partners the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the Congress, and the left parties for the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA). The immediate outcome of that announcement was the possible bolstering of the electoral fortunes of the BJP with Kumar changing sides. Likely, the NDA is set to win a good number of the 40 Lok Sabha seats from Bihar. Bharat Ratna for Thakur has acted as a game-changer so far as BJP’s electoral fortunes in Bihar are concerned.
The award to Singh, who was also a leader of the farming community in western Uttar Pradesh, has had a dramatic impact on his grandson Jayant Singh who heads the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), which has a good political base in the region. It has the possibility of tilting the electoral fortunes in favour of a political party which joins hands with him. On X, Jayant Singh remarked to a tweet by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the news, ‘Dil Jeet Liya’, and when asked by reporters if he would leave the Opposition alliance I.N.D.I.A. for the NDA, he said, “How could I say no now.” This political turn by the RLD which could help the NDA in western UP can be attributed to the Bharat Ratna for Charan Singh. Yet again, it testifies to the BJP template.
Electoral calculous
While in 2019, the BJP promised the Bharat Ratna with a view to seeking votes of the Maharashtra electorate, in 2024 it is using the highest civilian honour for seeking alliance with political parties which are part of the I.N.I.D.A. bloc in a desperate move to scale up its electoral fortunes in the upcoming general elections to secure a consecutive third term.
The Bharat Ratnas for Advani, Rao, and Swaminathan must be interpreted in the same manner. In Advani’s case, many have decried the Modi government’s decision because he led a highly-divisive rath yatra which led to the demolition of the Babri mosque in Ayodhya—an act which was described by the Supreme Court as an egregious violation of rule of law. Many see it as an exercise by Modi to reach out to voters on the Ram temple issue around which Advani mobilised thousands and enhanced the electoral fortunes of the BJP from its tally of only two seats in the Lok Sabha in 1984.
The BJP hopes that the Bharat Ratna for Rao would possibly increase the party’s political fortunes in Rao’s home terrain covering both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh where the party is desperate to win enough Lok Sabha seats. Possibly, the award for Swaminathan aims at reaching out to agriculturists who often invoke the M S Swaminathan report on farmers and demand its implementation. However, in both the cases there is less likelihood of the BJP reaping electoral dividends.
Political motive writ large
The BJP’s template of linking the Bharat Ratna to electoral outcomes is sadly writ large in decision to confer it on these five personalities. It goes against the very grain of bestowing the highest civilian honour of our Republic on worthy recipients.
(S N Sahu served as Officer on Special Duty to President of India K R Narayanan.)
Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.