Patna/New Delhi: A day after the Rashtrapati Bhavan announced the Bharat Ratna to Jannayak Karpoori Thakur, the three main parties of Bihar were caught in a political war to appropriate the legacy of the two-time chief minister.
While Janata Dal (United) organised a meeting Wednesday at the Veterinary College grounds in Patna, its ally, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), organised its own at Shri Krishna Memorial Hall. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was not to be left behind as it held a get-together in front of its state office.
Other regional parties such as Upendra Kushwaha’s Rashtriya Lok Janata Dal (RLJD) also marked the occasion with events of their own.
The first shot was fired by JD(U) head and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar who took a subtle dig at Lalu Prasad as well as advised the BJP to not take credit of conferring the Bharat Ratna and instead asked the Centre to accept its demand of a nation-wide caste census.
“Jananayak Karpuri Thakur never did anything for his family. Nowadays people make only family members as leaders. He was such a great leader but did not allow his son to enter politics. After his death, we brought Ram Nath Thakur ji into politics. He was a minister and now a Rajya Sabha member and also the party general secretary. Right now people are busy taking their family forward. Learning from him, I did not bring anyone from my family into politics,” Nitish said at the JD(U) meeting.
He highlighted how his party had approached various central governments over the years for bestowing the nation’s highest civilian honour to Thakur.
“It is a matter of happiness that Jannayak Karpoori Thakur was awarded the Bharat Ratna. When our government came in 2005, a year after that, from 2007 onwards, every year we kept writing to all the governments asking that Jannayak Karpoori Thakur should be given the Bharat Ratna. I congratulate the central government and PM Modi that they have accepted this. … We thanked him through the media but now don’t take credit for conferring the Bharat Ratna,” he asserted.
Now that it has been accepted, “we request them to accept our other demand of conducting a caste census across the country”, the CM added.
Twice the CM in the 1970s, Thakur is best remembered for granting reservation for the backward castes. In 1978, a year before the formation of the Mandal Commission, he implemented the recommendations of the Mungeri Lal Commission under which 26 percent reservation was granted to the socially and economically weaker people in government jobs. The poor from the general category as well as the women were each allotted 3 percent quota.
‘Those who believe in Karpoori have become dictator’
The BJP is already on an overdrive, with PM Modi himself penning a tribute to the former Bihar chief minister.
On Wednesday, BJP state president Samrat Chaudhary slammed the Mahagathbandhan government and especially went after RJD chief Lalu Prasad.
“If anyone gave the most respect to the extremely backward people in Bihar, it was the BJP. Jan Sangh was involved in making Karpoori Thakur the chief minister. Lalu never did anything for the backward classes. He only did it for his family. The son was made the deputy CM, the wife the CM and the other son a minister. I want to ask what he did for the people of Bihar?” Chaudhary said at the BJP function.
On his part, Lalu laid claim on the legacy of Karpoori Thakur as he recounted his days with Karpoori Thakur.
“The BJP was not remembering Jannayak Karpoori Thakur for so long. Now when the election is approaching, it felt that giving the Bharat Ratna would fetch votes. Karpoori Thakur definitely deserves the Bharat Ratna. We also demand the Bharat Ratna for Kanshi Ram and Ram Manohar Lohia. … They also deserve (it). No one is begging. Kanshi Ram gave voice to the Dalits, even though Mayawati drowned his name (sic),” he said at the RJD programme.
Lalu requested the workers to reach out to the houses of the extremely backward families, connect and work together with them.
Pankaj Chaurasia, a social science researcher from Jamia Millia Islamia, explained to ThePrint that the Extremely Backward Class (EBC) factor behind the rush to stake claim of Thakur’s legacy.
“The EBC community from which Karpoori Thakur comes has the highest share in Bihar with 36 percent. Ever since the caste survey was conducted (in Bihar), all parties have their eyes on this vote bank. Before the survey, only a few upper OBC castes used to corner the rights of people of other backward caste, but now the equation is changing,” he said.
The BJP has been getting the EBC votes, but it would like to take advantage of giving the Bharat Ratna to Karpoori Thakur, he said.
“For the last 32 years, the politics of Bihar has centred on Yadavs and Kurmis. After the census survey, many other castes have got the data of their actual numbers. Many of them have absolutely negligible participation in politics and jobs. There are some EBC castes whose economic-social condition is worse than the Scheduled Castes. The BJP has its eyes on these sections only,” Chaurasia asserted.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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