The BJP-led Centre’s decision to confer the country’s highest civilian honour on Karpoori comes at a time when Bihar is celebrating the centenary of his birth anniversary from January 22-24 and the opposition INDIA alliance has been pitching for a nation-wide caste census.
As CM in 1978, Thakur implemented a layered reservation system, despite resistance from the Bharatiya Jan Sangh, a major constituent of the Janata Party government in power at the time.