Manjhi makes history

Patna: Jitan Ram Manjhi on Monday made history when he became the first chief minister of Bihar to hoist the national flag on Republic Day.

As per the convention and established rule, the governor hoists the flag on Republic Day, while the chief minister does the same on Independence Day.

The Bihar governor’s post is, however, lying vacant after D Y Patil quit last year. West Bengal Governor Kesri Nath Tripathi is holding additional charge of Bihar.

Since Tripathi was scheduled to hoist the national flag at Kolkata, a peculiar situation arose as to who would do the honours here at Patna’s historic Gandhi Maidan.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) intervened and, after getting consent from Tripathi, asked Manjhi to take the salute.   In May, Manjhi became the first leader from the Mahadalit community (poorest among the dalits) to don the mantle of the state.

Belonging to the lowest strata among the low social groups – Mushahars – a rat eating impoverished Mahadalit caste, Manjhi started his political journey as a Congress MLA from Fatehpur in 1980.

He won the 1985 poll and became minister of state for welfare in the Congress government headed by Bindeshwari Dubey.  Later, he joined the Rashtriya Janata Dal and served as a minister in the Rabri regime, before switching his allegiance to Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal-United.

Bihar has also seen dalit and extremely backward class leaders like Bhola Paswan Shastri, Karpoori Thakur and Ram Sundar Das as chief minister.
Source: Deccan Herald