Jaipur, Feb 5 (IANS): Hours after Rajasthan Congress in-charge Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa triggered a controversy by commenting “Bharat Ratna is given to the dead”, state unit BJP chief CP Joshi on Monday hit back at the grand old party, saying it had bestowed the prestigious award on two prime ministers when they were alive.

The erstwhile Congress government had conferred Bharat Ratna to country’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in 1955 and fourth Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1971. The BJP government conferred the highest civilian award to late Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee after coming to power in 2014.

Bharat Ratna was also conferred on former Congress president and founder of Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha Madan Mohan Malaviya in 2015 posthumously.

“Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa should check the history of Bharat Ratna awardees. Congress governments conferred Bharat Ratna on two Prime Ministers when they were alive. They should know the history before criticising others,” Joshi said.

The Central government has said that it would confer veteran BJP leader L.K. Advani with Bharat Ratna.

Advani is widely credited as one of the tallest leaders who scripted BJP’s rise from ‘oblivion to prominence’. It was after his Rath Yatra in the 1990s that catapulted the saffron party into national politics.

Randhawa has said that if BJP people had so much love for the Ram temple then they should have taken Advani to the Pran Pratishtha ceremony as he had organised the Rath Yatra for the Ram temple.