On the death anniversary of one of India's most uncompromising voices for social justice, Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta paid solemn tribute to Dr Ram Manohar Lohia on Monday, 12 October 2026, honouring a legacy that continues to shape the grammar of Indian political thought. In her post on X, CM Gupta remembered Lohia as a 'great freedom fighter, ardent socialist thinker, and pioneer of social justice' — mahaan swatantrata senani, prakhar samajwadi chintak aur samajik nyay ke purodha — and offered her respectful homage on his punyatithi. She wrote that Lohia dedicated his entire life to fighting injustice, inequality, and discrimination, championing the rights of the poor, the exploited, and the marginalised. A Life Defined by Dissent and Dignity Dr Ram Manohar Lohia remains one of post-independence India's most singular figures. Born in 1910 in Akbarpur, Uttar Pradesh, he was a towering intellect who fused Gandhian civil disobedience with a fierce critique of caste hierarchy and economic inequality. He was jailed repeatedly — by the British during the colonial era and later by the Congress government during the Emergency years — and he never flinched from either prison or principle. Lohia's doctrine of the 'last man' — that no policy could be deemed just unless it uplifted the person standing at the very bottom of society — became a moral benchmark that Indian politics still argues over. His concept of samajik samarasata (social harmony) and his insistence on equal opportunity across caste, class, and gender lines were radical for their time and remain contested terrain today. He passed away on 12 October 1967 — making this his 59th death anniversary — and is remembered each year across the political spectrum, from socialist parties who claim direct lineage to BJP leaders who acknowledge his contribution to India's democratic conscience. Why a BJP Chief Minister Remembers a Socialist Icon CM Gupta's tribute is notable precisely because Lohia was no BJP ideologue. His legacy is most closely claimed by parties such as the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh, but his ideas — opposition to dynastic politics, suspicion of centralised power, and insistence on social equity — cut across party lines in ways that make him genuinely non-partisan political property. Indian leaders across the ideological spectrum routinely invoke Lohia on his birth and death anniversaries, a reflection of the breadth of his intellectual reach. Gupta specifically underscored Lohia's commitment to the upliftment of the 'last person in society' (samaj ke antim vyakti ka utthan) and praised his 'fearless thinking in the national interest' — phrases that resonate with the BJP's own stated development agenda of reaching the last beneficiary. Lohia's memory, invoked each year, is less a political claim and more a reminder that the arguments he started — about who India's democracy truly serves — are far from settled.