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He introduced some controversial policies – removed English as a compulsory subject in the matriculation examinations when he was the deputy chief minister and education minister of Bihar. He gave priority to unemployed engineers in jobs in the government contracts during his first term as the chief minister. He introduced reservation for the OBCs in the government jobs and educational institutions in the state during his second term as the chief minister of Bihar, and advocated arming the landless Dalits and the poor during the later stages of his political career.

The stigma of the caste he was born into always came between him and the prime ministership … But Jagjivan Ram did fulfil Dr Ambedkar’s dream of Dalits partnering in the governance and administration of the country

Suryanarayan Choudhary chose to be a people’s journalist in an era when journalism in Bihar was dependent on state patronage and had a feudal bias. His journalism was about the villages, social justice and ideological commitment. He was perpetually on the move

Inaugurating the Babu Jagjivanram Chamber at Bihar Central University, Prof Thorat said that, in the entire country, the Dalits of Bihar and Odisha fared the worst and their participation in the socio-economic activities was negligible