Centenary Milestone: Bharat Ratna LK Advani Enters His 100th Year

Veteran statesman and Bharat Ratna awardee Lal Krishna Advani entered the hundredth year of his life on 8th November, marking a historic personal milestone that coincides with major historical markers, including the 75th year of the Jana Sangh’s formation, the 125th birth anniversary of Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee, and the RSS centenary.

Born on Dev Deepawali in Karachi in 1927, Advani relocated during the Partition in 1947, rebuilding his life in independent India from the ground up. His public service started as an RSS Pracharak in Rajasthan before moving to Delhi, where he worked on strengthening the Bharatiya Jana Sangh. In 1967, he served as the Chairman of the Delhi Metropolitan Council, followed by the commencement of his parliamentary career in 1970.

Alongside former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Advani built a rare, enduring partnership spanning decades that fundamentally reshaped Indian politics. During the 1975 Emergency, he was imprisoned for resisting authoritarian rule, chronicling the era in his publication A Prisoner’s Scrap-Book.

Advani’s tenure as BJP President guided the party through dramatic electoral growth, transforming it from a marginal opposition presence into the single largest party in Parliament by 1996. A central moment in modern Indian political mobilization was his 1990 Ram Rath Yatra from Somnath to Ayodhya, which galvanised public opinion in support of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement.

In government, Advani served as the Minister for Information and Broadcasting in the 1977 Janata Party administration, and later as Union Home Minister and Deputy Prime Minister in the Vajpayee-led government, where he prioritized counter-terrorism frameworks and modernizing national security. Representing Gandhinagar in the Lok Sabha for multiple terms, he set notable standards for parliamentary engagement and constituent relations. He was also instrumental in promoting cultural initiatives like the Sindhu Darshan festival in Ladakh.

In recognition of his lifelong dedication to public life, nation-building, and constitutional democracy, Advani was conferred India’s highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, in 2024.