Karpoori Thakur’s legacy: Making the most marginalised person’s vote count
The Mungeri Lal Commission gave rise to what is now called the Karpoori Thakur formula for reservation, carving out a quota for the most backward communities
Former Bihar chief minister Karpoori Thakur, who championed equitable distribution of reservation benefits and implemented quotas in jobs for other backward classes (OBCs), was named Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian honour.
Over the past couple of years, Bihar has emerged as a battle ground for social justice politics, especially after its caste survey showed backward communities comprise nearly two-thirds of the population. The socialist leader’s legacy is being claimed by all political players in Bihar — but his biggest legacy will remain the benefits that the most marginalised people can access thanks to his politics.
Karpoori Thakur himself belonged to a community whose numerical strength was small and hence politically ineffective. As chief minister, he introduced a sub categorisation which later came to be known as ‘Karpoori Thakur Formula’. In June 1970, during his government’s tenure, he appointed the Mungeri Lal Commission. It submitted its report in February 1976 naming 128 “backward” communities, 94 of which were identified as the “most backward”. Thakur’s Janata Party government implemented the recommendations of the Commission — 26% reservation for backward classes that were further categorised as Annexure I, also known as the extremely backward classes (EBC) and Annexure II. While Annexure I was allocated 12% reservation in government posts, Annexure II was given 8% reservation for the less backward classes. Besides this, 3% reservation was to be allocated to women from any community and 3% to the economically backward groups.
Thakur's political career was marked by several key milestones. He served as a minister and deputy chief minister before becoming CM. His tenure was notable for imposing prohibition, and reflected his commitment to social reform.
Script set, other parties followed
The script of backward class politics ultimately set the tone for the Mandal Commission, which ushered quotas for OBCs at the national level in 1990. His work laid the foundation for the empowerment of backward classes, which later influenced the formation of regional parties like the Janata Dal (United) and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).
The recent caste survey in Bihar, conducted for the first time since Independence, has sought to build on Thakur's legacy. The survey revealed that backward communities comprise nearly two-thirds of Bihar's population, with extremely backward communities constituting 36.01% and backward castes another 27.12%. This data has the potential to reshape political strategies and ensure that the quota for backward castes in jobs and educational institutions is proportionate to their population.
“After the caste survey findings, those opposed to the exercise are trying to create space. The JD(U) and RJD have been consolidating their reach and it remains to be seen if the BJP will get some benefit,” said DM Diwakar, former director of the AN Sinha Institute for Social Studies.
The EBCs were never considered a political force in Bihar. It was in the 2005 assembly polls that Nitish Kumar realised that EBC votes alone could be a match to Lalu’s Muslim-Yadav combination. After coming to power in 2005, one of the first steps Nitish took was to reserve quota for EBCs in panchayat and local body polls. “The 20% reservation to EBC in Panchayats is one of the major decisions in Bihar’s political history,” said Srikant, former director of Jagjivan Ram Institute of Parliamentary Studies and Political Research.
The EBCs remained with Nitish Kumar in a bloc till he broke ties with the BJP for the first time in 2013. Since then, the BJP has been working on EBC votes in a major way, projecting an EBC deputy CM, Renu Devi, after the 2020 assembly polls, making an EBC its leader in the state legislative council last year, and holding functions in the name of Karpoori Thakur. Political pundits believe that naming Karpoori Thakur as the recipient of the Bharat Ratna is the saffron party’s attempt at claiming his legacy.
Though nothing has changed for the Nai community which was just 1.6% of the population in the 1970s, (the current survey shows that the number has come down to 1.59%), political parties still attempted to win the EBC vote.
Nitish-Lalu in his footsteps
Nitish, the longest-serving Bihar CM, ensured the implementation of Karpoori’s formula in the context of the reservation of jobs in Bihar. Kumar’s government hiked the EBC quota from 18 to 25%, and for OBC from 15 to 18%, SC from 16 to 20% and ST from 1 to 2% in 2023.
“Both RJD supremo Lalu Prasad and CM Nitish Kumar have cashed in on the Karpoori legacy to ensure that the reins did not slip out of the hands of backward classes since the 1990s,” said Srikant.
With politics revolving around caste, no wonder, BJP came out with its own plan by conferring Bharat Ratna to the Jana Nayak, as Thakur is called. “The main objective of this is to win over the EBC votes in the wake of Mandal politics,” said political analyst NK Chowdhary.
Recommended Topics