Karpuri Thakur.
– Photo: Amar Ujala
Expansion
Today is a historic day for Bihar. The great personality of the state, former Deputy Chief Minister Karpoori Thakur was given the country’s highest civilian honor Bharat Ratna. Ramnath Thakur received his father’s honor from the hands of President Draupadi Murmu. This honor is the pride of the people of Bihar. Let us know who was Karpoori Thakur, who was called Jananayak…
Karpoori Thakur was born 100 years ago in a family of barber caste in Pitaunjhiya, a village in Samastipur during the British rule in India. Now this village is called Karpoorigram because it was the birthplace of Karpoori Thakur. Karpoori Thakur was a true soldier of socialism. At the age of just seventeen, he took part in the Quit India Movement and went to jail. Independence of the country: He was a true disciple of folk hero JP and socialist thinker Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia. At that time, student leaders of Bihar like Lalu Prasad Yadav, Nitish Kumar, Ram Vilas Paswan and Sushil Kumar Modi were studying politics. All of them considered Karpoori Thakur as a political guru. Karpoori has been recognized as a freedom fighter, teacher and politician. He was the second Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar and twice Chief Minister. Due to his popularity he was called a public hero.
Karpoori Thakur became Chief Minister in 1970 and 1977.
It is said that he pursued anti-Congress politics throughout his life and achieved his political position. The JP movement in the seventies became a turning point when all the socialists and backward class leaders stood under one flag. Karpoori Thakur became the Chief Minister of the state for the first time in 1970. On 22 December 1970, he took charge of the state for the first time. His first term lasted only 163 days. Between 1973-77, Karpuri also joined the student movement of Loknayak Jaiprakash. In 1977, he became MP for the first time from Samastipur parliamentary constituency. But very soon after resigning from the Lok Sabha, Karpoori was once again made the Chief Minister on June 24, 1977. This tenure also could not complete two years. When mid-term elections were held in 1980, Lok Dal under the leadership of Karpoori Thakur emerged as the main opposition party in the Bihar Assembly and Karpoori Thakur became its leader.
Worked for the interests of the downtrodden people
In his tenure of just less than two years, he worked for the interests of the downtrodden people of the society. Education was made free till matriculation in Bihar. At the same time, it was made mandatory to work in Hindi in all departments of the state. During his tenure, he did many such works in favor of the poor, backward and extremely backward, which brought about a radical change in the politics of Bihar. After this, the political power of Karpoori Thakur increased tremendously and he became a big face of socialism in the politics of Bihar.
