Karpoori Thakur’s son thanks PM Modi for conferring Bharat Ratna on former Bihar CM

Karpoori Thakur

Former Bihar chief minister Karpoori Thakur’s son and JD(U) MP Ram Nath Thakur thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for conferring the prestigious Bharat Ratna Award on his father, posthumously.

Ram Nath Thakur wrote to PM Modi, thanking him for the Bharat Ratna honour bestowed on his father and said the extremely backward classes of India, especially the people of Bihar, will forever be grateful to the government for recognising the contributions of Karpoori Thakur.

Karpoori Thakur fought all his life for the rights and respect of the poor, Dalits, backward sections and the deprived, he said in his letter to Modi, expressing his gratitude for bestowing the country's highest civilian honour on the social worker on his birth centenary year.

“The award was long-awaited and the government announced it in the first month of the year,” the Rajya Sabha member noted.

Socialists and followers of Mahatma Gandhi, Jayaprakash Narayan, and Ram Manohar Lohia draw inspiration from Karpoori Thakur's life, and the government's decision has ensured that he will be remembered as a Bharat Ratna, he said.

A week ago, Bihar chief minister and JDU chief Nitish Kumar had addressed a gathering and said he has taken forward the legacy of Karpoori Thakur through his governance. He also thanked the prime minister for bestowing the honour on the former CM of Bihar, and said: “… I thanked PM Narendra Modi for doing it. Probably, now they have realised that without honouring such leaders, there is no going forward in politics.”

(With PTI inputs)