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Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to confer the Bharat Ratna, the nation’s highest civilian honour, on socialist idol Ram Manohar Lohia.
In a three-page letter addressed to the PM, the Janata Dal (United) chief highlighted the various contributions of the freedom fighter in nation building as well as his efforts in uniting all non-Congress parties during the time of Jawaharlal Nehru.
In his letter, Kumar drew the PM’s attention to how Lohia fought for the liberation of Goa from the Portuguese after India’s independence from the British rule. The Bihar CM also urged the PM to rename the Goa airport in honour of the socialist leader.
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“Lohia gave the call for river cleaning, save Himalayas, world government, etc in the fifth decade of the 20th century which prove his foresight. He even said that he will stop protesting against Nehru if he promised to build toilets for women in every village,” Kumar wrote in the letter.
“It would be ideal to honour Dr Lohia with the Bharat Ratna on his death anniversary on 12 October and Goa airport is renamed ‘Dr Ram Manohar Lohia airport’,” wrote the CM.
“It is my personal request that this proposal is considered and concerned ministry be instructed to take necessary steps,” he wrote.
This is not the first time that the Bihar CM has demanded Bharat Ratna for Lohia. He had made the same pitch in August 2014. In December 2014, the Bihar legislative council passed a unanimous resolution demanding Bharat Ratna for Lohia and Bihar’s two former CMs Shri Krishna Sinha and Karpoori Thakur.
Born in Akbarpur, Uttar Pradesh, on 23 March 1910, Ram Manohar Lohia’s philosophy spawned a number of parties in northern India such as Swamajwadi Party (SP), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Kumar’s JD(U).
He passed away in 1967 aged 57.
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