Patna, Sep 20 (PTI) The Congress in Bihar on Sunday demanded Bharat Ratna for Bhola Paswan Shastri, the state’s “first Dalit chief minister”, whose final tenure was marked by the setting up of the Mungeri Lal Commission, which recommended quotas for the numerically powerful backward classes.
The demand was raised at a press conference by Ravindra Paswan, chairman of the Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee’s Scheduled Castes cell.
Paswan said the birth anniversary celebrations at Sadaqat Ashram, the BPCC headquarters, on Monday would be attended by AICC Scheduled Castes cell chairman Rajendra Pal Gautam and around 5,000 delegates from across the state.
Seeking the highest civilian honour for Shastri, Paswan highlighted that he served as CM three times and also held the posts of Union minister and Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha.
He also pointed out that the Mungeri Lal Commission was set up during Shastri’s final tenure as chief minister in 1971-72.
The commission submitted its report in 1977, during the chief ministership of socialist leader Karpoori Thakur, who was awarded the Bharat Ratna in 2024.
Implementation of the commission’s recommendations by Thakur, which faced opposition from sections of the upper castes, was seen as a turning point in Bihar’s politics, with Other Backward Classes (OBCs) gaining greater political prominence following the Mandal movement of the 1990s. PTI NAC MNB
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