Former Bihar Chief Minister Karpoori Thakur lived and breathed his principles. He rose from one of the most marginalised communities, was jailed for fighting the British during the freedom struggle, and joined post-independence politics to secure what he strongly espoused—equity and social justice for the most backward sections of society. Apart from being a respected socialist who laid the foundation of a structured reservation system for the backward classes, he imposed prohibition, championed the cause of education, and batted for regional languages as he did away with English as a compulsory subject in the school-leaving exam.
The Centre’s decision to confer the Bharat Ratna on ‘Jan Nayak’ Thakur on his birth centenary is an apt tribute to a leader who had the courage to shun the greed and glamour of politics and lived within his modest means despite being chief minister twice. His was a creed that India lacks today.
Giving the Jan Nayak the highest civilian award is also a form of recognising the most disadvantaged classes, for whom Thakur remained a voice till his demise in 1988. It was Thakur who, in his first stint as chief minister, constituted the Mungeri Lal Commission in 1970 and, in his second stint, implemented its recommendation of giving a layered 26 percent reservation to OBCs. That might have led to the fall of Thakur’s government, with upper caste sections up in arms against his decision.
Now, months ahead of the general elections, the NDA government’s decision to honour him can be a weapon to neutralise the Congress’s attempts to own the cause through an aggressive promise of a caste census. It may have a ripple effect in the Hindi heartland, where Mandal and OBC politics remain among the most potent electoral factors.
How it impacts the INDIA bloc is to be watched. Bihar’s current chief minister’s differences with the Congress are growing over the delay in seat-sharing talks and his relationship with the RJD remains uneasy. Meanwhile, Nitish Kumar has thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over nominating Thakur for the award. And after his recent meeting with Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar, rumours of Nitish returning to the NDA are flying thick and fast. Following in the wake of the mandir wave, awarding a champion of the backward classes the highest civilian award could be a political masterstroke by the BJP.