Has Bharat Ratna become yet another political tool for BJP?

With Prime Minister Narendra Modi announcing Bharat Ratna for former Prime Ministers Chaudhary Charan Singh and PV Narsimha Rao, and agriculture scientist Dr MS Swaminathan, the government has now conferred the country’s highest civilian honour on five personalities this year.

The government had earlier conferred the award on BJP stalwart LK Advani and former Bihar Chief Minister Karpoori Thakur. The announcement for these awards came weeks before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, in which the BJP is eyeing to cross 400-mark even as the Opposition parties have come together in the form of the INDIA bloc.

Alliance with RLD?

Interestingly, the Bharat Ratnas announced just ahead of elections this year serve one or the other political narrative of the ruling BJP. For instance, the award for Charan Singh comes amid talks of an alliance between the BJP and the RLD led by Singh’s grandson Jayant Chaudhary in Uttar Pradesh.

It will be a jolt to the Congress and the Samajwadi Party if the RLD decides to join hands with the BJP in Uttar Pradesh, which sends the maximum MPs of 80 to Lok Sabha.

An alliance with the RLD will give a big boost to the BJP as the former has substantial support among Jats and farmers in western Uttar Pradesh. As per media reports, the BJP may offer two Lok Sabha seats and one Rajya Sabha seat to RLD in return for its support.

Jayant Chaudhary's party may get the Baghpat and Bijnor seats, and his wife may be made a Rajya Sabha candidate, it is speculated. There was also talk of ministerial berths for the RLD. There were reports that the BJP had offered two berths to the RLD in the UP Cabinet, but it also asked for a berth in the Union Cabinet.

Social justice plank

Similarly, the BJP is eyeing big gains in the other critical state of Bihar, which sends 40 MPs to Lok Sabha. The Bharat Ratna for Karpoori Thakur came days before his protégé and incumbent Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar resorted to yet another flip-flop and dumped the INDIA bloc for realigning with the BJP.

Modi’s decision to honour Thakur is aimed at weakening the electoral consolidation of OBCs and MBCs (most backward classes) in Bihar. Significantly, Modi took this step only after Nitish declared the findings of the state government’s caste survey, which pegged Bihar’s total backward class population to be around 63%, with OBC comprising 27% of the total and MBCs about 36%. The move was also intended to weaken the Congress attack on the BJP over the issue of caste survey.

However, an unfazed Congress is relentlessly targeting the BJP over the issue of social justice as evident from Rahul Gandhi’s recent announcement that if the INDIA bloc secures victory in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, the 50% cap on reservations will be eliminated. Addressing public meetings during his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in Bihar and Jharkhand, he also pledged to conduct a nationwide caste census. He also alleged that under PM Modi's leadership, Dalits, tribals, and OBCs were marginalised in various sectors.

Footprint in South

Political observers also see the BJP’s strategic and calculated political effort behind the Bharat Ratna to PV Narasimha Rao ahead of the Lok Sabha elections due in April-May.

Apart from annoying Congress, which has been accused by the BJP of “disrespecting” the former PM, the move is also an attempt by the party to reach out to voters in undivided Andhra Pradesh – Rao’s home state.

Rao was the first person from South India to become the Prime Minister. Interestingly, Modi made it a point to underline Rao’s southern roots when he paid tributes to him. “Narasimha Rao Garu... is equally remembered for the work he did as Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Union Minister, and as a Member of Parliament and Legislative Assembly for many years,” he tweeted.

With the BJP virtually reaching a saturation point in the northern states in terms of Lok Sabha seats, the development is also seen by many as the BJP’s bid to expand its footprint in the south. The BJP is focusing its efforts in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, where may ally with Chandrababu Naidu's TDP and actor-politician Pawan Kalyan's Jana Sena Party (JSP).

In the 2019 polls, BJP won only 29 out of 129 seats in the south. Of the 29, it won 25 seats in Karnataka and four in Telangana. It drew a blank in Andhra Pradesh.

Leaders cutting across political lines have hailed the Bharat Ratna to Rao in the neighbouring Telangana and the BJP hopes that the move will pay dividends in the state where the Congress stormed into power by ousting K Chandrasekhar Rao's BRS.

Hindutva vote

The Bharat Ratna to BJP stalwart LK Advani came within days of the consecration of the Ram temple in Ayodhya by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It was seen as the recognition of his pivotal role in the Ram Janmabhoomi movement in 1990s. 

However, at the same time, many believed it was a calculated move to pacify those who felt that Advani was not given his due despite being a pioneer of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement. It was also expected to silence the criticism that Modi has ignored Advani’s contribution in realising the temple dream.

Advani, who embarked on a ‘rath yatra’ from Somnath in Gujarat to Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh and mobilised Hindu sentiment in favour of a Ram temple at the then disputed Ram Janmabhoomi site, is seen as the BJP’s original poster boy of muscular Hindutva. His ‘rath yatra’ had come in the face of strident reservation politics in the country over the BP Mandal Commission’s recommendation of 27 per cent quota for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in government jobs and higher education.

Farmers’ protest

The timing of the awarding Bharat Ratna to agriculture scientist Dr MS Swaminathan is also critical as it comes just when farmer protests are on a revival mode. It was only yesterday that thousands of farmers marching towards Delhi to demand legal sanction for minimum support price (MSP) for their agricultural produce were stopped by the UP police in Noida.

Ironically, the Modi government has consistently ignored Dr Swaminathan’s suggestions on MSP regime and agricultural reforms. The farmers unions have time and again stated that the real tribute to Dr Swaminathan is the “implementation of his report in toto regarding remunerative MSP and its legal status, and his formula C2+50%.”

The C2 (comprehensive cost of production) formula of calculating cost of cultivation includes the imputed cost of capital and the rent on land, to give farmers 50% returns.

The move to confer the nation's highest civilian award on the Father of Green Revolution is being viewed as an olive branch for the agitating farmers.