Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh.
Credit: PTI File Photo
New Delhi: Welcoming the decision to confer Bharat Ratna on socialist icon and former Bihar Chief Minister Karpoori Thakur, leaders of the I.N.D.I.A bloc reminded the BJP how Jan Sangh sabotaged his government over backward classes’ quota and its present reluctance to announce a nationwide caste census.
Top Opposition leaders like Rahul Gandhi and Lalu Prasad welcomed the news stating it has been a long-pending demand of socialist parties as they batted for caste census emphasising that what the country needs is 'real justice and not symbolic justice'.
The announcement a day ahead of the former Bihar chief minister’s birth centenary is seen as the Narendra Modi government’s bold attempt to take the battle into Nitish Kumar-led JD(U) and Lalu Prasad-led RJD camps, which champions social justice, and woo backward classes that are not dominant in Bihar and elsewhere.
Calling Thakur an incomparable warrior of social justice and certainly a precious gem of India, Rahul claimed the BJP has been concealing the results of the socio-economic and caste census 2011 while highlighting its “indifference” to caste census. “The country now needs 'real justice' not 'symbolic politics',” he posted on X.
RJD supremo Lalu Prasad said his political and ideological guru should have received the Bharat Ratna a long time ago while alleging that the Modi government has woken up to their demand only after the Bihar government conducted a caste survey and increased the scope of quota. “The fear is true, politics will have to focus on the concerns of Dalit, Bahujan,” he said.
RJD senior MP Manoj K Jha and Congress media department Chairperson Pawan Khera recalled how the Jan Sangh elements in the Janata Party opposed Thakur while he was implementing the Mungeri Lal Commission recommendations, to provide quota for backward classes in government jobs. Thakur had faced trouble and lost the Chief Ministership in 1979.
“Every Bihari is proud of this great son of Bihar getting the Bharat Ratna. At the same time, the abuses showered on Karpoori-ji by the BJP's predecessor Jan Sangh also come to mind. What more needs to be said…Politics will be complete only by working on the concerns of the Bahujans,” Jha said.
Khera alleged, “Kailashpati Mishra who was a tall Jan Sangh leader and Finance Minister sabotaged Karpoori Babu’s attempts and ensured that the government fell. Kailashpati Mishra is considered to be the ‘Bhishma Pitamah’ of BJP in Bihar. Later in 1980, when the Congress returned to power in Bihar, the Mungeri Lal Commission report was fully implemented.”
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar thanked Modi for the announcement but reminded them that they had been raising the demand for years.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said Thakur believed that development in the country is incomplete without social justice and hence he was in favour of caste census, which is opposed by the BJP. “This highest honour given to Late Karpoori Thakur Ji on his 100th birth anniversary will create positive sentiments among the Dalits, deprived and neglected sections,” he said.