President Droupadi Murmu on Sunday conferred Bharat Ratna on BJP stalwart and former Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani.
PM Modi (File photo:SNS)
President Droupadi Murmu on Sunday conferred Bharat Ratna on BJP stalwart and former Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani.
President Murmu visited the house of Mr Advani, who has not been keeping well, in New Delhi to bestow upon the nation’s highest civilian honour.
The formal ceremony was attended by Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah and the family members of the veteran politician.
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”Shri Advani, a doyen of Indian politics, has served the nation with unwavering dedication and distinction for over seven decades. Born in Karachi in 1927, he migrated to India in 1947 against the backdrop of partition. With his vision of cultural nationalism, he toiled hard for decades, across the length and breadth of the country, and brought about a transformation in the socio-political landscape. When the Emergency put India’s democracy at risk, the indefatigable crusader in him helped guard it against authoritarian tendencies,” the Rashtrapati Bhavan later said in a post on ‘X’.
PM Modi also later wrote on ‘X’, “It was very special to witness the conferring of the Bharat Ratna upon Shri LK Advani Ji. This honour is a recognition of his enduring contributions to our nation’s progress. His dedication to public service and his pivotal role in shaping modern India have left an indelible mark on our history. I am proud to have got the opportunity to work with him very closely over the last several decades.”
This year, the government announced five Bharat Ratna awards, including four others for former Prime Ministers P V Narasimha Rao and Chaudhary Charan Singh, agriculture scientist M S Swaminathan and former Bihar chief minister Karpoori Thakur. The other four were awarded posthumously at a ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on Saturday.
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