Bihar: BJP plans to celebrate poet Ramdhari Singh Dinkar’s works

Thakur’s call came soon after RSS weekly Panchajanya published a cover story and a series of other articles on the renowned author seeking a debate on why he had been completely ignored by the political establishments in the past few decades.

BJP is preparing for a perceivably tough electoral battle in Bihar, where the Opposition parties, including its erstwhile ally JD-U, are expected to be united against it. The assembly elections, expected to be in September-October, is crucial to the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose popularity has faced a dip, according to opinion surveys.
Thakur said the celebrations will be launched at an event to be inaugurated by the Prime Minister on May 22 at Vigyan Bhawan. Special functions will be held in Begusarai, Muzaffarpur, Bhagalpur and Patna — places associated with Dinkar.

Thakur said the preparations in this regard had been going on for a long time with participation of several like-minded people.

The BJP leader also called for setting up of an institute named after ‘Dinkar’ for promoting Hindi language.

While political observers see this as a part of the BJP’s attempts to woo the Bhumihar community, to which Dinakar belonged to, Thakur said the party is trying to honour the Hindi poets who had been neglected for so long.

After six decades of independence, Hindi has not been accorded status of a “language of knowledge and science”.
Literary persons and scholars from across the country will be attending these events, he said.