Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Shri Amit Shah addressed the 100th birth anniversary celebrations of Jannayak Karpoori Thakur in New Delhi today.

On this occasion, Shri Amit Shah said that Karpoori Thakur had become a public leader due to his nature, deeds, principles, simplicity and compassion towards the poor and the deprived, but it took a very long time for the public leader to become Bharat Ratna Karpoori Thakur. He said that many governments came but no one even thought of awarding the country's highest honor to Karpoori Thakur. Today, on the occasion of his 100th birth anniversary, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, who grew up in a poor family like him, has given the Bharat Ratna to Karpoori Thakur. Shri Shah said that it is a coincidence that on 22nd, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi performed consecration of Lord Ram and on 23rd he tried to connect Ram and the poor section of the society by honoring the poor. He said that on 22nd, the dream of all Ram devotees, who had been waiting for 500 years, was fulfilled and on 23rd, by fulfilling the desire of the millions of poor, Dalits, backward, deprived and tribal for years, Bharat Ratna is given to Karpoori Thakur who embodied the social justice. He said that Modi ji has not only honored Jannayak Karpoori Thakur, but has also honored crores of poor people of this country.

Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation said that Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has honored the basic mantra of justice and equal rights for all of our Constitution by giving Bharat Ratna to Karpoori Thakur. He added that Shri Narendra Modi has created hope in the minds of crores of poor youth of the country that anything can be accomplished. He said that by honoring Karpoori Thakur, Prime Minister Modi has, in a way, symbolically honored the crores of youth struggling in politics with simplicity, authenticity, principles of equality, integrity, morality and self-esteem. The Home Minister said that Shri Karpoori Thakur, like a selfless Karmayogi, propounded the highest values of life through his work, who struggled and affirmed the principle of equality by his example and brought sensitivity towards the poor to the ground. He was a person who set an example and lived a principled life.

Shri Amit Shah said that today is a very important day in the history of India because today is the birth anniversary of Karpoori Thakur. On this day the national anthem Jana-Gana-Mana was adopted by our Constituent Assembly, Bharat Ratna Dr. Rajendra Prasad was elected the Speaker of the Constituent Assembly and the first President and this day is also associated with Dr. Homi Jehangir Bhabha and Pandit Bhimsen Joshi. He said that a new Politics is being initiated in the country today. Shri Shah said that Ram Manohar Lohia and Mahatma Gandhi had underlined the principles of equality and social justice as well as the politics of simplicity and principles, Prime Minister Modi implemented it in his life and by giving Bharat Ratna to Karpoori Thakur today, Modi ji has honored these principles. Shri Shah said that this decision of Prime Minister Modi has increased the strength of the people who are doing politics of principle and character in the country. He said that from 1924 till his last breath, every moment of Karpoori Thakur's life was devoted to the welfare of the poor.

Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation said that after looking at the last 10 years of Prime Minister Modi ji, it becomes clear that he has worked to implement the principles of Karpoori Thakur ji. In these 10 years, 23 crore Indians have come above the poverty line, more than 4 crore have got houses, more than 3 crore have got electricity and Modi ji has done the work of providing gas cylinders to the homes of 10 crore people. He added that even after 75 years of independence, 14 crore people did not have tap water in their homes, Modi ji has done the work of providing tap water to their homes and 80 crore poor people are getting 5 kg free grains every month. Every public welfare scheme shows the commitment of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and his government towards the welfare of the poor.

Shri Amit Shah said that in the life of Karpoori Thakur, the simplicity of Mahatma Gandhi ji, Dr.B.R.Ambedkar ji's affection towards the extremely backward class and Ram Manohar Lohia ji's efforts to implement the formula of social justice can be seen. Karpoori Thakur ji was a great example for public representatives to win the trust of the public by remaining simple and approachable. While doing politics of principles, Karpoori Thakur ji worked to stick to the politics of his principles and always got the support of the public. Jananayak worked to bring to the ground the principle of Gandhi ji and Lohia ji that when the country will run in its own language only then it will come out of the mentality of slavery. Hindi got a new life and acceptance only when Karpoori Thakur ji made the use of Hindi mandatory for all government work.

Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation said that Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has done the work of taking forward the new generation educated in their own language by giving strength to all the local languages of the country along with Hindi. Our Indian languages have also been given a lot of emphasis in the New Education Policy brought by Prime Minister Modi ji. He said that Modi ji has now started a new era by starting medical and technical education in Indian languages. Shri Shah added that Modi ji has done a lot of welfare work for women, economically backward and other backward classes. He said that in 1978, Karpoori Thakur ji had started giving reservation to OBC, women and economically backward upper caste in Bihar.

Shri Amit Shah said that today Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji has done the work of respecting OBCs, giving 33 percent reservation to women and also giving reservation to economically backward classes. Prime Minister Modi himself and 27 ministers in his Council of Ministers belong to the OBC category. Modi ji has accorded constitutional status to the OBC Commission and given the states the right to modify the OBC list. He said that Modi ji has also given reservation to OBCs for the first time in all the educational institutions of the Government of India. Prime Minister Modi ji has also implemented the principles of our Constitution on the ground without any controversy.

Union Home Minister said that Karpoori Thakur had said that true freedom will be possible when every person has bread in his hand. Prime Minister Modi has done many things for the upliftment of the poor, the biggest of them is to provide 5 KG of free food grains every month to 70 crore poor people. He said that Modi ji has pledged that every poor person in the country should get a pucca house by the year 2027. Shri Shah said that Karpoori Thakur set an example of impeccable authenticity in politics for our new generation. Karpoori Thakur was a staunch opponent of the Emergency and had deep faith in the democracy. He said that earlier governments had established a tradition of honoring public leaders and leaders active in public life who were close to their families, but Prime Minister Modi has broken this tradition and honored many public leaders.

*****

RK/ASH/PR/AK