When Karpoori Thakur called his own MP a “Paaji” for selling his seat

My first meeting with Karpoori Thakur took place in 1969 at the Lala Lajpat Rai Memorial Hall in Chhajubagh. Kishore Bharti, a monthly magazine for students, had organised an all-Bihar inter-school debate competition on whether students should participate in politics. The event was chaired by the Chief Justice of the Patna High Court, Satish Chandra Mishra, and Karpoori Thakur, then Deputy Chief Minister and Education Minister, was the chief guest. He distributed the prizes on that occasion. It was during his tenure in the 1967 Samyukta Vidhayak Dal government that the “Pass Without English” category was introduced for the Matriculation examination.

He provided active leadership during the JP Movement and even resigned from his MLA post. He remained underground throughout the Emergency. When JP addressed his first massive public meeting at Gandhi Maidan after the Emergency was lifted, Thakur suddenly appeared there despite an active MISA warrant against him. He walked among the dispersing crowds through Exhibition Road and finally came “overground” at the Mahila Charkha Samiti in Kadamkuan.

In the 1977 Lok Sabha elections, he was elected as an MP and was later appointed Chief Minister of Bihar after the Assembly results. After he was declared leader, I interviewed him for Searchlight while he sat on a simple wooden chair at the residence of socialist leader Pranav Chatterjee. I witnessed DIG Badri Narayan Sinha salute him as they discussed the oath-taking ceremony. After becoming Chief Minister, he resigned from the Lok Sabha and subsequently won the Assembly seat from Phulparas.

Under his leadership, the Mungeri Lal Commission report was implemented, introducing reservations for 26 backward classes for the first time in Bihar. He also nationalised sugar mills in the state.

Karpoori Thakur’s integrity extended to his dealings with the press. He would visit the Searchlight office on the eve of cabinet meetings to brief the editor and seek editorials. However, the editor was later asked to leave with a three-month severance cheque because the owners of the sugar mills he had nationalised were also the owners of the newspaper.

His personal life was defined by extreme simplicity. Once, on reaching home late and finding supporters sleeping on his bed, the Chief Minister simply spread a blanket on the floor and slept there. Brahmadev Ram, secretary to the then Home Minister Ramanand Tiwari, recalls visiting the CM for an urgent file only to find him sitting on a wooden chauki, wrapped in a blanket, surrounded by common people. He never reprimanded officials; instead, he preferred to discuss matters with them while sitting in the back seat of his Ambassador car, without any security fanfare.

He owned no personal vehicle and enjoyed no special privileges as an ex-Chief Minister. Once, he waited for two hours for a vehicle arranged by Bindeshwar Pathak for a trip to Chapra. In 1980, he famously took a lift on a Vespa scooter from his former Minister of State, Mithilesh Kumar Singh, to attend wedding ceremonies in Patna. Gautam Sagar Rana recalls returning from Jehanabad late at night when they ate free of cost at a small, unhygienic dhaba near Patna Junction, run by a former JP Movement activist.

The most striking example of his political morality came when Mahavir Prasad, a party member in the Rajya Sabha, resigned his seat to facilitate the entry of an industrialist into the Upper House. Prasad described it as a “sacrifice”, but Karpoori Thakur called him a “Paaji” (scoundrel) to his face. He had received reports that the seat had been sold for money. His commitment to political purity was so uncompromising that he never hesitated to call out corruption, even within his own ranks.

(Today, January 24, marks the birth anniversary of this legendary leader.)