Mayawati demands Bharat Ratna for Kanshi Ram, welcomes one for Karpoori Thakur

Tribune News Service

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, January 24

Welcoming the Bharat Ratna for late OBC icon Karpoori Thakur, Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Wednesday demanded the highest civilian honour for BSP founder Kanshi Ram.

"Today, on his 100th birth anniversary, tributes to the great leader Shri Karpuri Thakur ji, who fought hard throughout his life to ensure a life of social justice and equality for the extremely backward classes in the country, especially their constitutional rights. Welcoming the belated decision of the Central government to honour the great personality of the country Shri Karpoori Thakur ji, who was the Chief Minister of Bihar twice, with the title of Bharat Ratna. Hearty congratulations and best wishes to his family and all his followers for this highest civilian honour of the country," Mayawati said.

BSP chief and former UP CM Mayawati said the contribution of Kanshi Ram ji, the father and founder of the BSP, in making Dalits and other neglected people live with self-respect and make them stand on their feet is historic.

"In line with the aspirations of crores, it is essential to confer Bharat Ratna on Kanshi Ram ji," she said.

By conferring the top honour on Thakur, the ruling BJP has signalled solidarity with the late Bihar CM who was the first to moot the concept of quotas in government jobs for OBCs to politically empower them.

His reservation policy in Bihar altered the political equations pushing a once powerful Congress mostly dominated by upper castes to the electoral margins and setting the stage for OBC assertion.

Even after his demise, the JDU and RJD led by Nitish Kumar and Lalu Yadav, respectively, continued to consolidate on the foundations of OBC politics laid by Thakur.

Like Thakur in Bihar, Kanshi Ram worked to consolidate upwardly mobile underprivileged sections under the Bahujan Samaj and paved the way for the rise of Dalit politics in UP.

His protege Mayawati went on to become the Uttar Pradesh chief minister four times.

With the BJP's recent expansion to cultivate the underprivileged constituency through government benefits on the one hand and broader Hindu consolidation on the other, the BSP finds itself on the margins in UP.

She has now announced plans to contest the 2024 general election on her own to regain the lost ground.

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