Opinion: Bharat Ratna To Karpoori Thakur - A Masterstroke?

Karpoori Thakur, a two-time former Bihar Chief Minister who died in 1988, is back in the heart of political discourse after being honoured with the Bharat Ratna, the country's highest civilian award.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi shared the news on X. The announcement, in the birth centenary year of the 'Jannayak' - or people's leader as Karpoori Thakur was fondly referred to - appears to be a masterstroke.

The award for Thakur has stirred up Bihar politics just months before the Lok Sabha election. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his deputy Tejashwi Yadav have welcomed it, calling it an old demand.

But the buzz that all this is part of the BJP's larger strategy to yank Nitish Kumar back to the NDA fold (again) is louder. 

Thakur was a socialist leader, belonging to the barber ('nai') community, one of the most backward castes in Bihar. He went on to become Chief Minister of Bihar twice - from 1970 to 1971 with the Samyukta Socialist Party and from December 1977 to April 1979 with the Janata Party - albeit for brief stints. However, he left an indelible mark on Bihar's deprived section - a messiah of social justice - and is often credited with the rise of backward caste politics. He was at the forefront of the anti-Emergency movement along with socialist icon Jayprakash Narayan. He was known for his integrity, simple living, and advocacy of social justice.

Champion of social justice

Thakur was the first to push for the empowerment of the backward classes, which eventually set the tone for the Mandal Commission recommendations. He was the pioneer of the 'Karpoori Thakur formula', which gave 26 per cent reservation to backward communities and classes in government services in Bihar, back in 1978. This was on the recommendation of the Mungeri Lal Commission appointed by the Karpoori Thakur government, which suggested that backward classes be reclassified as extremely backward classes (including weaker sections of Muslims) and backward classes.

The commission had, in its report, identified 128 backward communities, 94 of which were deemed 'most backward'. This became the guiding principle for backward caste reservation politics for his disciples Lalu Yadav and Nitish Kumar - first in the form of the Mandal Commission and later a caste census and the layered reservations formula within it.

In Uttar Pradesh, Mulayam Singh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party also benefited electorally as part of this social engineering collusion in the 1990s. Thakur had to face a lot of flak for his 'Karpoori Thakur Formula' reservation and much of this criticism came from the section of society that felt its share in employment would get depleted.

Shivanand Tiwari, national vice president of Lalu Yadav's RJD, who has been part of both the Lalu Yadav and Nitish Kumar regimes, calls it a belated recognition of an icon.

"Karpoori ji was abused and called names for the reservation policy he introduced. His work and policies touched millions of lives. He estimated the size of Extremely Backward Castes (EBCs) and gave them reservation even before the actual survey was thought of. That's what makes him so deserving of this 'much delayed' recognition," says Mr Tiwari, whose father Ramanand Tiwari was a minister in the Karpoori Thakur government.

Thakur was the education minister of Bihar from March 1967 to January 1968. During this short stint too, he took decisions like removing English as a compulsory subject for Class 10 exams in Bihar as students from poor families, mainly those studying in government schools, found it tough.

"If Karpoori ji hadn't done it, Bihar would have been deprived of even matriculate people in those days. He was not against English as a medium of instruction but considered this step imperative to enable the masses to secure a degree and at least become employable," says Shree Kant, a senior journalist based in Patna.

Relevance of Karpoori Thakur in Hindi heartland

Thakur lost much of his relevance in Bihar politics after the rise of his disciples Lalu Yadav, Nitish Kumar and Ram Vilas Paswan. As each claimed their spot as champions of social justice and gained power, Thakur receded to the background.

But riding on Thakur's legacy, the OBCs emerged as an influential political and electoral coalition, and regional parties - Lalu Yadav's RJD, Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal-United, and Ram Vilas Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party - soared in Bihar politics. Consolidating the OBC votes, both the RJD and JDU have ruled Bihar since the 1990s. With an eye on the Lok Sabha elections, Chief Minister Kumar released caste census data last year, refocusing the strobe lights on caste politics at a critical point. Even in this last-ditch effort, Kumar used the Karpoori Thakur Formula to categorise backward classes into two categories and positioned himself as the leader of the EBCs. This he did with the aim to counter friend-turned-enemy-turned-friend Lalu Yadav, with whom he has a long and bittersweet history. He had applied the same formula of 'Mahadalit' to check Ram Vilas Paswan's power and influence earlier. The INDIA alliance too has been raising calls for a caste census as a counter to the BJP's temple-powered mobilisation.  

Politics over 'Bharat Ratna'          

Even before the Ram temple inauguration, the BJP has been reaching out to the OBCs and Dalits, in what is seen as an attempt to consolidate Hindu votes. That Karpoori Thakur was deserving of the Bharat Ratna is beyond debate, but the timing is significant.

Mr Tiwari says that while he heartily welcomes this honour for Karpoori Thakur, it comes just before the Lok Sabha elections.

"The BJP has been in power for the last 10 years but look at the timing of the inauguration of the 'yet-to-be-completed' Ram Mandir at Ayodhya, or now, the Bharat Ratna for Kapoori Thakur," Mr Tiwari comments.

Mr Kant disagrees. "It's not something new. It is not the first time that an award is being given so that the ruling party can take credit," he says.

The 2023 caste census report of Bihar indicated that 63 per cent of the population is OBC and 36 per cent categorised as EBC. When the report came out, political observers declared that it was Advantage RJD-JDU. The BJP seemed to be waiting for the right time to announce the Bharat Ratna for Late Karpoori Thakur. The January 22 consecration of the Ayodhya Ram Temple signalled its strategy to subsume all castes into one fold, of being Hindus.

Will Nitish Kumar take the bait? The run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections just got interesting.

(Bharti Mishra Nath is a senior journalist)

Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author.