Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on Saturday that former Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani would be conferred with the Bharat Ratna, expanding the list of recipients of the highest civilian award in India since 1954 to 50.
The Prime Minister used his personal social media handle to make the announcement and shared that he had congratulated the party veteran on receiving the prestigious honor.
“I am very happy to share that LK Advani will be conferred the Bharat Ratna. I also spoke to him and congratulated him on being conferred this honour.” tweeted PM Narendra Modi.
LK Advani
Born on November 8, 1927, the 96-year-old Advani served as the 7th Deputy Prime Minister of India from 2002 to 2004.
From 1998 to 2004, he also held the position of Minister of Home Affairs and was the prime ministerial candidate of the BJP during the 2009 general election.
LK Advani is widely credited as one of the tallest leaders who played a crucial role in scripting BJP’s rise from ‘oblivion to prominence.’ His Rath Yatra in the 1990s catapulted the saffron party into national politics.
Along with Advani, the government decided to award the Bharat Ratna to former Bihar chief minister Karpoori Thakur.
List of recipients of Bharat Ratna award since 1954
The Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian award, was instituted in 1954.
It is given as a mark of recognition for exceptional and distinguished service. Following is the list of recipients of the Bharat Ratna award since 1954.
| Name | Awarded in (Year) |
| Shri Chakravarti Rajagopalachari | 1954 |
| Dr. Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan | 1954 |
| Dr. Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman | 1954 |
| Dr. Bhagwan Das | 1955 |
| Dr. Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya | 1955 |
| Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru | 1955 |
| Pt. Govind Ballabh Pant | 1957 |
| Dr. Dhondo Keshav Karve | 1958 |
| Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy | 1961 |
| Shri Purushottam Das Tandon | 1961 |
| Dr. Rajendra Prasad | 1962 |
| Dr. Zakir Husain | 1963 |
| Dr. Pandurang Vaman Kane | 1963 |
| Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri (Posthumous) | 1966 |
| Smt. Indira Gandhi | 1971 |
| Shri VarahagiriVenkataGiri | 1975 |
| Kumaraswamy Kamraj (Posthumous) | 1976 |
| Mother Mary Teresa Bojaxhiu (Mother Teresa) | 1980 |
| Acharya Vinoba Bhave (Posthumous) | 1983 |
| Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan | 1987 |
| Marudur Gopalan Ramachandran (Posthumous) | 1988 |
| Dr. Bhim Rao RamjiAmbedkar (Posthumous) | 1990 |
| Dr. Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela | 1990 |
| Rajiv Gandhi (Posthumous) | 1991 |
| Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel (Posthumous) | 1991 |
| Morarji Ranchhodji Desai | 1991 |
| Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (Posthumous) | 1992 |
| Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhai Tata | 1992 |
| Satyajit Ray | 1992 |
| Gulzarilal Nanda | 1997 |
| Aruna Asaf Ali (Posthumous) | 1997 |
| Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam | 1997 |
| Madurai Shanmukhavadivu Subbulakshmi | 1998 |
| Chidambaram Subramaniam | 1998 |
| Jayaprakash Narayan (Posthumous) | 1999 |
| Professor Amartya Sen | 1999 |
| Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi (Posthumous) | 1999 |
| Pandit Ravi Shankar | 1999 |
| Sushri Lata Dinanath Mangeshkar | 2001 |
| Ustad Bismillah Khan | 2001 |
| Pandit Bhimsen Gururaj Joshi | 2009 |
| Prof. C. N. R. Rao | 2014 |
| Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar | 2014 |
| Atal Bihari Vajpayee | 2015 |
| Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya (Posthumous) | 2015 |
| Nanaji Deshmukh (Posthumous) | 2019 |
| Dr. Bhupendra Kumar Hazarika (Posthumous) | 2019 |
| Pranab Mukherjee | 2019 |
The award was not given to anyone between 2020 and 2023.
Now, the decision to award the Bharat Ratna to LK Advani and Karpoori Thakur has taken the number of recipients of the country’s highest civilian award to 50.
