Congress welcomes Bharat Ratna to Thakur

New Delhi: The Congress on Wednesday welcomed the decision to confer Bharat Ratna on former Bihar chief minister Karpoori Thakur, even as Rahul Gandhi asserted that a caste census will be a true tribute to the socialist leader as the country now needs "real justice" and not "politics of symbolism".

The opposition party also slammed the BJP, saying it reflects the Narendra Modi government's "desperation and hypocrisy". Two-time Bihar chief minister Thakur has been named for the country's highest civilian award Bharat Ratna posthumously. "I pay respectful tribute to Jannayak Karpoori Thakur ji, an incomparable warrior of social justice, on his birth centenary. He is certainly a precious gem of India and the decision to award him Bharat Ratna posthumously is welcome," Gandhi said in a post in Hindi on X.

The former Congress chief alleged that the BJP government's "concealment" of the results of the social and economic caste census conducted in 2011 and their "indifference" towards a nationwide census is an attempt to weaken the movement for social justice. "'Justice of equal participation', one of the five justices of the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, is at the centre of justice and social equality, which can begin only after the caste census," Gandhi said. "In the true sense, this step will also be a true tribute to Jannayak Karpoori Thakur ji and his struggles for the rights of the backward and the deprived," he said. "The country now needs 'real justice' not 'politics of symbolism'," Gandhi asserted.