The late Karpoori Thakur, who has been posthumously conferred Bharat Ratna, was a quintessential socialist. But this Award has come to him more because of political considerations and not for his contributions to society or the country. He was indisputably honest to the core but had no idea how to take the country to the path of progress. The decline of industries and the education system of Bihar, which started during the sixties gained momentum during his time. He was the promoter of the extreme and nefarious form of casteism. Instead of working for the abolition of landlordism and acceleration of industrialisation, he paid more attention to driving a wedge between the castes.
Dr Ram Manohar Lohia was, no doubt, an exceptional thinker with very high grades. He had a huge understanding of Indian culture, values and traditions but he was also the father of casteism in northern India. Strangely, it was all done in the name of ‘Jaati todo’ or annihilation of caste. The dominant Middle backward castes like Yadavas, Kurmis etc. found expression through him but Mahadalits continued to remain exploited and were thus deprived of the benefits even after independence.
Persons like Mulayam Singh Yadav, Lalu Prasad Yadav, Nitish Kumar, Sharad Yadav and George Fernandes have been the disciples of Dr Lohia, but they used their brand of socialism for more corrupt activities and accumulation of wealth and accentuation of power. Thus, the conferring of Bharat Ratna on Karpoori Thakur is to be appreciated only more for his honesty and simplicity rather than for his novelty or newness of ideas.
Look at the enormous wealth and nepotism of socialists like Mulayam Singh Yadav. He and his family must have garnered property worth thousands of crores even by a rough estimate. No member of the near or distant family of Lalu Prasad Yadav, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Ram Bilas Paswan or Sharad Yadav was left, who did not enjoy some or other posts of profit and pelf, thanks to the open and unabashed patronage of these so-called champions of socialism.
Karpoori Thakur was, without doubt, much better than these shameless socialists. One wonders why Mulayam Singh Yadav was honoured with Padma Vibhushan by the Modi government although he was the embodiment of lawlessness, rabid nepotism, rank opportunism and disdainful corruption. Lalu Prasad Yadav has been, head and shoulder, above Mulayam Singh Yadav in corruption and nepotism. He continued to rule the state through his illiterate wife and is promoting almost illiterate son to be the next Chief Minister of the state. Nitish Kumar and George Fernandes have been certainly better than these shameless persons, but they also failed to inspire the young generation. Most of the socialist leaders have been blots on society and they deserve to be discarded. History bears ample testimony to the fact that they got more recoiled and entangled in the deleterious web of casteism.