Jan Nayak Karpoori Thakur was born on 24th January, 1924 in a village in Samastipur District of Bihar in a downtrodden wage earner family. From the days of his student life, he was interested in social upliftment of the weak and the poor. While doing his graduation, he left college to join Quit India Movement on the call of Mahatma Gandhi. As an ardent activist of freedom movement, he had to undergo rigorous imprisonment for 26 months. Even after independence he courted imprisonment several times in pursuance of various public causes relating particularly to upliftment and social equality of weaker segments of the society.
Karpoori Thakur was the first non-Congress CM of Bihar and, after Jayaprakash Narayan, he is considered the real champion of the cause of the dalits and the poor. He had opted to marry off his daughter at his native village. Karpoori Thakur had warned all his officials that if any of them was even found near the marriage site or engaged in making preparations for the ceremony, action would be taken against them. He had not even informed his Cabinet colleagues about the marriage. When some of them, getting wind of the marriage, offered help, he said, "It is the marriage of the daughter of Karpoori Thakur and not the daughter of a CM." A close assistant of the late Thakur says that he had incurred a total expenditure of Rs 10,000-11,000 on the wedding in the mid-seventies, while rough estimates put the entire expenditure on Laloo’s daughter’s marriage at Rs 3/4 crore.
Interestingly, when the then DM of Karpoori Thakur’s home district rushed to the CM’s side a day before the marriage, he was told to go back and attend to his official duties.
As political lobbying for Bhara Ratna hots up, there are demands being made to bestow posthumously the highest civilian honour on former Bihar Chief Minister Karpuri Thakur. Thakur was twice chief minister of the state -- first from December 1970 to June 1971 and then later from June 1977 to April 1979.
In the early years after independence he served as a Teacher in the Middle School of his village. From 1952 till his demise, he was a member of Bihar Vidhan Sabha except for a short span in 1977 when he was a member of Lok Sabha. From a school teacher, he rose to become a Minister, a Deputy Chief Minister and ultimately the Chief Minister of Bihar State, a portfolio he held twice. He was also National President of Samyukta Socialist Party.
A staunch socialist, the spirit of socialism was the sheet anchor of his political career.He imparted a multidimensional character to the labour and peasant movement. He was arrested while leading hundreds of P & T employees during the historical general strike of the Central Government in 1960. He was on fast unto death for 28 days to press for the cause of Telco labourers in 1970.During the emergency period he led the movement of' Total Revolution' fearlessly and faithfully from underground hideouts. He was a dedicated votary of Hindi. He did away with the compulsive learning of English as a subject from matriculation curriculum. As Chief Minister, he enforced total prohibition in Bihar State. He also introduced reservation in Government jobs for backward classes in 1978.
He established a number of schools and colleges in backward and neglected areas of Bihar with public cooperation. A shining symbol of simplicity humility, integrity and duty, he devoted his life to the cause of social transformation. He fought against exploitation and injustice in society. As a luminary of socialist movement, he occupied a distinguished place in the country's politics. His premature death on 18th February, 1988 has created a void in public and political life which is felt even today by all sections of the society.
Sr No Chief minister's name and party Became CM in
1 Sri Krishna Sinha Jan 1946 Jan 1961 Congress
2 Deep Narayan Singh Feb 1961 Feb 1961 Congress
3 Binodanand Jha Feb 1961 Oct 1963 Congress
4 Krishana Vallabh Sahay Oct 1963 March 1967 Congress
5 Mahamaya Pd Sinha March 1967 Jan 1968 Jan Kranti Dal
6 Satish Prasad Singh Jan 1968 Feb 1968 Congress
7 B. P. Mandal Feb. 1st 1968 Feb. 22nd 1968 Congress
8 Bhola Paswan Shashtri Feb 1968 June 1968 Congress(O)
9 Harihar Singh Feb 1969 June 1969 Congress
10 Bhola Paswan Shashtri [2] June 1969 July 1969 Congress (O)
11 Daroga Prasad Rai Feb 1970 Dec 1970 Congress
12 Karpuri Thakur Dec 1970 June 1971 Socialist Party
13 Bhola Paswan Shashtri [3] June 1971 Jan 1972 Congress
14 Kedar Pandey March 1972 Jan 1973 Congress
15 Abdul Gafoor July 1973 April 1975 Congress
16 Dr.Jagannath Mishra April 1975 April 1977 Congress
17 Karpuri Thakur [2] June 1977 April 1979 Janta Party
18 Ram Sunder Das April 1979 Feb 1980 Janta party
19 Dr.Jagannath Mishra [2] June 1980 April 1983 Congress (I)
20 Chandrashekhar Singh Aug 1983 March 1985 Congress (I)
21 Bindeshwari Dubey March 1985 Feb 1988 Congress (I)
22 Bhagwat Jha Azad Feb 1988 March 1989 Congress (I)
23 Satyendra Narayan Sinha March 1989 Dec 1989 Congress (I)
24 Dr.Jagannath Mishra [3] Dec 1989 March 1990 Congress (I)
25 Laloo Prasad Yadav March 1990 March 1995 Janata Dal
26 Laloo Prasad Yadav [2] April 1995 July 1997 Rashtriya Janta Dal
27 Rabri Devi July 1997 Feb 1999 Rashtriya Janta Dal
28 Rabri Devi [2] March 1999 March 2000 Rashtriya Janata Dal
29 Nitish Kumar March 3rd 2000 March 10th 2000 Janata Dal (United)
30 Rabri Devi [3] March 2000 Feb 2005 Rashtriya Janata Dal
31 Nitish Kumar [2] Nov 24th 2005 Present Janata Dal (United)
No comments:
Post a Comment