Karpoori Thakur Awarded Bharat Ratna Posthumously

Karpoori Thakur, a prominent Gandhian socialist leader and former Bihar chief minister will be awarded the ‘Bharat Ratna’ posthumously. He served as chief minister from December 1970 to June 1971...

Ruby Thakur
January 24, 2024
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Karpoori Thakur, a prominent Gandhian socialist leader and former Bihar chief minister will be awarded the ‘Bharat Ratna’ posthumously. He served as chief minister from December 1970 to June 1971 and from December 1977 to April 1979. Karpoori Thakur died on February 17, 1988. this “highest honor to late Karpoori Thakur ji on his 100th birth anniversary will create positive sentiments among the Dalits, deprived and neglected sections”.

Karpoori Thakur Awarded Bharat Ratna Posthumously

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Karpoori Thakur, a prominent Gandhian socialist leader and former Bihar chief minister will be awarded the ‘Bharat Ratna’ posthumously. He served as chief minister from December 1970 to June 1971 and from December 1977 to April 1979.
Karpoori Thakur died on February 17, 1988. this “highest honor to late Karpoori Thakur ji on his 100th birth anniversary will create positive sentiments among the Dalits, deprived and neglected sections”.

Bharat Ratna

Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian award in the country, has been granted to 49 individuals so far, with 17 posthumously.
Instituted in 1954, this award is open to anyone, regardless of race, occupation, position, or gender.
It is awarded in recognition of outstanding service or performance of the highest order in any field of human endeavour.
The prime minister makes recommendations directly to the President, and no formal recommendations are required.

The annual awards are limited to a maximum of three per year. Upon receiving the award, the recipient is presented with a Sanad (certificate) signed by the President and a medallion. The Bharat Ratna does not come with any monetary grant, according to the ministry of home affairs (MHA).

Karpoori Thakur

Thakur was born in village Pitaunjhia (now known as Karpoori Gram), in the Samastipur district of Bihar. He participated in the freedom struggle and was also jailed for it.
In independent India, he was voted in as an MLA in 1952. He remained an MLA till his death in 1988, except when he became an MP in 1977 and when he lost an Assembly election in 1984, amid the sympathy wave for Congress after Indira Gandhi’s assassination.
Thakur was education minister of Bihar from March 5 1967 to January 28, 1968. He became the state’s chief minister in December 1970 with the Samyukta Socialist Party, but his government fell after six months. He came to the post again in June 1977, but could not finish a full term, losing power in about two years. This happened due to a reservation policy he implemented, on which we’ll elaborate later.

The Centre announced it would award the Bharat Ratna posthumously to Karpoori Thakur, former chief minister of Bihar. This is the birth centenary year of Thakur, also known as ‘Jannayak’, or the leader of the people.
Prominent political parties of Bihar, such as the RJD and the JD(U), have regularly demanded the Bharat Ratna for Thakur, known for his struggle to secure dignity, self respect, and development for the most disadvantaged sections of society.

Thakur’s (January 24, 1924-February 17, 1988) political life was one of contrasts — he managed to emerge as the tallest backward caste leader in Bihar despite belonging to the minority nai (barber) caste himself, but the rise of the leaders he mentored, from numerically stronger castes (Lalu Prasad from the Yadavs, Ram Vilas Paswan among Dalits), took away his pole position. He was chief minister twice for short tenures, but his radical policy decisions had an outsized impact, and resonate even today.

Major Policy Decisions

Thakur is known for many of his decisions — removing English as compulsory subject for the matriculation examinations; prohibition of alcohol; preferential treatment for unemployed engineers in government contracts, through which around 8,000 of them got jobs (this was when unemployed engineers were staging regular protests for jobs.

In June 1970, the Bihar government appointed the Mungeri Lal Commission, which in its report of February 1976 named 128 “backward” communities, 94 of which were identified as “most backward”.
The Janata Party government of Thakur implemented the recommendations of the Commission.
The ‘Karpoori Thakur Formula’ provided 26% reservation, of which OBCs got a 12% share, the economically backward classes among the OBCs got 8%, women got 3%, and the poor from the “upper castes” got 3%.This was much before the central government came up with the EWS quota. however, The ‘Karpoori Thakur Formula’ cost him dearly. His government fell, and he witnessed major opposition from upper castes.

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Ruby Thakur

General Studies Lecturer SSBCrackExams, BSc In PCM, Trained Students For State Services Exams. Expertise in Geography ,Polity & Current Affairs. Love Travelling.