Lal Krishna Advani will be conferred the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian honour, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on Saturday, adding that the award was being bestowed on the Bharatiya Janata Party veteran for his “monumental” contribution to India’s development.

Advani, 96, accepted the honour with “utmost humility and gratitude” and said in a statement that it was not only an honour for him as a person but also for the ideals and principles that he strove to serve throughout his life.

“Ever since I joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh as its volunteer at the age of 14, I have sought reward in only one thing — in dedicated and selfless service of my beloved country in whatever task life assigned to me. What has inspired my life is the motto: ‘This life is not mine. My life is for my Nation…’,” the statement read.

Read here: When I look at Advani and PM Modi, I recall two incidents: Jairam Ramesh on Bharat Ratna

Modi, who earlier announced the Bharat Ratna for socialist stalwart and former Bihar chief minister Karpoori Thakur, said that he spoke to Advani about the award. “I also spoke to him and congratulated him on being conferred this honour. One of the most respected statesmen of our times, his contribution to the development of India is monumental,” the Prime Minister said in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

Modi also referred to Advani’s stints as a minister with different portfolios. “He distinguished himself as our Home Minister and I&B Minister as well. His Parliamentary interventions have always been exemplary, full of rich insights,” Modi said.

Advani, who served as deputy Prime Minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government from 2002-04, is a founding member of the BJP and the face of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement. He led a Ram Rath Yatra in 1990 to mobilize public opinion in favour of building a Ram temple in Ayodhya at the spot where Babri Masjid stood. The mosque was razed by a mob in 1992.

The award for Advani comes at a time when the BJP has fulfilled its poll promise of building the Ram temple. Advani’s absence from the consecration ceremony in Ayodhya on January 22 was seen as a snub to the leader who is credited to have changed the fortunes of the party after he led the Ram Rath Yatra. Although his family said the leader could not attend the grand ceremony due to ill-health, there was a section of political leaders who expressed discomfiture at his absence from the ceremony presided over by Modi.

After the BJP came to power in 2014, Advani, along with Murli Manohar Joshi and Yashwant Sinha, were elevated to the Margdarshak Mandal (guidance committee), which was again seen as sidelining of the older generation.

The Bharat Ratna for Advani, the Karachi-born architect of the Ram temple movement and party president who had to step down in 2005 after his praise for the founder of Pakistan, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, set off a kerfuffle, is also seen as an attempt to appease the more hardline vote bank of the BJP.

“It was Advani ji whose Rath Yatra in 1990 from Somnath (in Gujarat) to Ayodhya (in Uttar Pradesh) galvanized the Hindu votebank and set the stage for the resurgence of Hindutva. There were many attempts made covertly and overtly to stop him. But he was unrelenting and ensured the growth of the BJP from 85 MPs party to 120 MPs (in 1991),” a BJP functionary said on condition of anonymity.

It was Advani who steered the RSS-BJP equation towards stability when friction between Vajpayee and K Sudarshan, the then chief of the RSS, had deepened, and differences were out in the open, the functionary said.

“Though he was often seen as hardliner, Advani straddled the role of swayamsevak (volunteer) and seasoned politician with ease,” he said. “He had great political acumen, could make friends across party lines, played a key role in shaping the Janata Party coalition to counter the Congress and the vision that laid the foundation of Kamandal politics to cut the Mandal politics.”

Kamandal politics refers to the rise of Hindu nationalistic sentiment, while Mandal politics is seen as a movement for social justice to traditionally oppressed caste groups.