00:00Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, which are now just weeks away, the Modi government's
00:08decision to award the Bharat Ratna to two leaders, LK Advani and Kapuri Thakur, is politically
00:14very significant. Mr. Advani, of course, is the original Hindutva poster boy, the man
00:19who led the Rath Yatra in the 90s that led to the demolition of the Babri Masjid, the
00:24spot at which the Ram Temple now stands, after a Supreme Court verdict in favour of the Hindu
00:28petitioners. On the other hand, you have Kapuri Thakur, who was awarded the Bharat Ratna posthumously.
00:35He was a two-time Chief Minister of Bihar, the man credited with the rise of backward
00:39caste politics in the state and subsequently in other parts of the country. With this,
00:44what the BJP has signalled is that as far as religion, Hindutva are concerned, as far
00:49as social justice politics is concerned, this is the plank with which they are going into
00:54the Lok Sabha polls. And that's a very formidable plank with which to campaign. The opposition,
00:59on the other hand, is still struggling to find a narrative. By giving the Bharat Ratna
01:04to Kapuri Thakur, in a sense, their entire sting around the opposition's caste census
01:08campaign has been taken away by the BJP. And we saw how Nitish Kumar also jumped ship and
01:13went back into the arms of the NDA days after this announcement was made. So, it's going
01:19to be an interesting battle, a very hard-fought one. But at the moment, it's clearly advantaged
01:25BJP as we head into election time.
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