The Honesty, Integrity and Altruism are what Kirti Jha Azad has inherited in his blood.

The vigorous and dynamic personality of Kirti Jha Azad may appealingly be described and characterized as a worthy son of a worthy father. His father, Dr. Bhagwat Jha Azad, a former Chief Minister of Bihar, is well known for his integrity and ideals who never made any compromise with his principles all along his protracted political career. The spirit of a conscientious politician of his father does entirely reflect in Kirti Jha Azad as well. He too like his father is an ingenious and a true-blue politician who possesses an out of the ordinary morale to stand, speak and fight against the evil and unrighteous affairs of his own Party too. He is honest to the core having no ignominy attached to him in his long political carrier as of now but at the same time remains combative, tenacious and a rebellion as well. He is modest but is not so shy to be a mute spectator where he sees something wrong happening. He has recently become talk of the town after he alleged heavy financial irregularities in Delhi & District Cricket Association (DDCA) for which he has been fighting for last 8 years.

Kirti Jha Azad was born on January 2, 1959 in Purnia, a north-eastern district of Bihar. He attended ‘Modern School’ in Delhi and studied history at St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University. He has been a member of the 1983 Cricket world-cup winning team. He had played a significant contribution as a bowler in defeating England in the World Cup semi-finals. His genuine love for Cricket may be supplemented by the fact that he has always been vocal against the presence of ‘Politics in Sports’. This is not new when Kirti Azad has raised his voice against corruption and politics in sports rather he has been doing it for quite a long time. He had sat on a hunger strike in 2012 in Delhi demanding a complete ban on the ‘Indian Premier League’. He has always advocated for transparency and accountability in Sports. He is a founding member of the ‘Karma Social Welfare Association’ (KSWA) an NGO which launched an extensive hunt for cricketing talents in the slums of New Delhi around 1996 in the times when there was a dearth of talent in Indian Cricket. He was largely successful in eliciting out cricketing talents from the slums of Delhi by organizing a month-long day-night cricket tournament in Gole Market, New Delhi. This organisation was previously also involved into educating slum children and women on hygiene, health and other issues related to the life in ghettos. This all he did and continues to do even by risking his own political carrier and interest because he believes that “he must pay back to the game which has given him so much in life.”

Few years back I was going through a Hindi Daily of Patna edition, the complete and accurate content of which, has dismissed from my mind but I do remember that it carried the report about the failure of Bihar Govt. in delivering the announced prize to Kriti Jha Azad which the State Govt. had proclaimed after he returned as a member of 1983 world-cup winning team. The News report stated that, the then Govt. of Bihar had announced certain prize in the form of land to Mr. Kriti Jha Azad for gleaming the glory of the State by being member of 1983 world- cup winning team. This News report further went on to state that the said land was earmarked in Patna to deliver its possession to Kirti Azad but for the reasons unknown it was not approved and consequently not delivered to him. Later on, when his father Dr. Bhagwat Jha Azad became Chief Minister of Bihar he was advised to approve the same, but he outrightly rejected such advice and declined to do so arguing that such a step may send a wrong signal in the peoples’ mind and may shake their trust in the system. The logic of such advice that prize was already announced by previous Govt. and he only needed to approve it, failed to leave any impression on his thought. He was not ready to alter his stance and went on to say that if the previous Govt. didn’t approve it then it must be done by the next Govt. as it is not proper for this Govt. to  approve it.

I was deeply moved by this story and consequently filed an RTI application dated 2^nd of July 2013 in the CM Secretariat of Bihar asking the full details of prize announced, its present status etc. but the response I received was jaw-dropping. The response to my RTI application which was transferred to “Art, Culture and Youth Department” under section 6(3) of R.T.I Act left me totally stunned. The response mentioned that no record/documents relating to any such prize announced were available with the Government. I have recently written to Chief Minister of Bihar in this regard and is willing to fight even judicial battle to ensure that the justice be served to him thinking he must not suffer for his and his father’s honesty. I have never heard that Kriti Azad has ever raised his voice for his own right of receiving the prize announced to him by the Govt. which of course carries huge economical values in today’s time. But, I have certainly heard of his constant gallantry battle against corruption in DDCA for last eight years without bothering of its any adverse consequences which in fact he had to face in the form of suspension from his party recently. 

Today, when I relate all these stories of his and his father’s honesty and integrity to the recent revolt of Kirti Azad against corruption in DDCA, I can’t help but to allow this impression to rule my mind that the honesty, integrity and altruism are what Kriti Jha Azad has inherited in his blood.

Note: The part of the pictures used on this blog has been taken from Internet with due credit to its owner.