Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced to honor senior BJP leader Lal Krishna Advani with Bharat Ratna. This is the highest civilian honor of the country. Advani has contributed in every field, be it the strengthening of BJP or the country or the movement to generate public support on the Ayodhya issue. Advani has great affection for Jharkhand and he has many important memories associated with it. Two are especially remembered. When Advani was arrested in Samastipur during the Rath Yatra in 1990, he was kept at Masanjore Guest House in Dumka. It is a coincidence that when Advani was arrested in Samastipur on October 23, 1990, the District Magistrate there was RK Singh and Superintendent of Police Rameshwar Oraon. Former IS RK Singh is currently a minister at the Centre, while former IPS Rameshwar Oraon was the Finance Minister in the Hemant government. Advani has played a big role in creating the state of Jharkhand. This is the reason that when Jharkhand was becoming a state on November 15, 2000, Advani himself was present at the swearing-in ceremony at Raj Bhavan.
The most talked about incident was the arrest of Advani. On September 25, 1990, Advani started his journey from Somnath for the construction of Ram temple. Pramod Mahajan was with him. The Rath Yatra reached Bihar on 19 October. There was a big meeting in Ranchi. Then went to Dhanbad. There was a plan to arrest Advani in Dhanbad itself, but at that time Afzal Amanullah was the Deputy Commissioner of Dhanbad. His arrest there could have taken a different shape. Therefore the arrest was postponed. When the yatra reached Samastipur via Patna, Advani, Kailashpati Mishra, Pramod Mahajan, Yadunath Pandey (former MP from Hazaribagh) and Dinanath Pandey (former MLA from Jamshedpur) were arrested. After his arrest, Advani was kept in the guest house of the Irrigation Department at Masanjore, 35 km from Dumka. Even today, when Masanjore guest house is discussed, there is also talk of keeping Advani in the same guest house.
Advani remained in support of a separate Vananchal state since the Agra session of 1988. When he was the national president of BJP, he kept giving green signal to the movements for a separate forest area. The National Executive meeting of BJP was held in Jamshedpur from 1 to 3 July, 1988. Advani was the national president at that time and he had asked for a movement for Vananchal. For this, orders were given to hold a rally in Ranchi on November 23, 1988. When the rally took place, Advani himself came to Ranchi to participate in it. This was the first big meeting of Jharkhand BJP for Vananchal in which Advani had said – BJP has taken a unanimous decision to run a movement to demand Vananchal state for the employment of the people here and development of the area. Later, Advani was seen supporting Vananchal on every major platform in Jharkhand.
In December 1998, when a bill for Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh and Vananchal states was to be brought in the 12th Lok Sabha, there was opposition and ultimately it was decided not to bring the Vananchal Bill. After this incident, the then Jamshedpur MP Abha Mahato started crying in the Parliament lobby. Many BJP leaders explained but she did not agree. When Advani came to know about this, he himself went to Abha Mahato and said – Abha, I understand your feelings and pain, you keep quiet. I kept trying to bring the bill, but due to opposition from many parties and the decisions taken in the all-party meeting, the bill could not be introduced. Still I will try. Jharkhand MPs including Abha Mahato were hopeful on Advani’s assurance. On Advani’s request, a cabinet meeting was called the next day. After that the Vananchal Bill was introduced in the Parliament. After this Jharkhand state could be formed. It is clear from this that Advani not only gave assurance about Jharkhand but also put in all his strength to fulfill it.