Nitish Kumar seeks Bharat Ratna for Karpoori Thakur

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar with JD(U) national president Sharad Yadav during birth anniversary function of Jannayak Karpoori Thakur at S K M hall in Patna. ----PTI

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to announce Bharat Ratna for former Bihar CM Karpoori Thakur for his contributions to the country. Mr Kumar was addressing an event to mark Karpoori’s birth anniversary in Patna on Sunday.

Launching an attack on the BJP for playing politics in the name of Karpoori, the CM said, “I am happy that the BJP has started to celebrate Karpoori Jayanti and when they have started acknowledging his contribution to the nation they should immediately announce a Bharat Ratna award for him.”

This was not the first time the CM had demanded the highest civilian award for Karpoori. Both the CM and RJD chief Lalu Yadav, who belong to the same socialist background, have accused the Janasangh for creating political crisis resulting in the fall of Karpoori Thakur’s government in Bihar.

Speaking on the issue, RJD chief Lalu Yadav claimed that Karpoori Thakur always confided in him and considered him as “a mass leader” and had told him several times that “I was popular among masses in the rural Bihar. He created an easy path for backwards and Dalits and the power that we enjoy today are only due to his contribution”. Further, Lalu Yadav accused the BJP for doing divisive politics and said “they even tried their stunts in Bihar but they failed”.

Not leaving any stone unturned in attacking the BJP, Bihar CM claimed that “there is no problem internally” in his government in Bihar. “The BJP is trying to create disturbances by raising baseless issues,” he said, adding that “opponents say Lalu Yadav is interfering in the government’s work but I don’t think so”.

This was the first time Nitish Kumar had come out in defence of Lalu Yadav. “Today when Lalu Yadav calls any official they say he is interfering but when BJP was part of my government in Bihar they used to call the officials and no one questioned them,” said the CM. He also raised questions on former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi holding Janata Darbar regularly.