Mumbai: Shrikant Jichkar the most qualified person in country, today marks its 66th birth anniversary. He was born on 14 September 1954. Limca Book described him as the most qualified person in the country.
He has 20 degrees from 42 different university. Every exam he attempted had passed in first division.
He started his career as an MBBS doctor. Later, M.D. from Nagpur. He is one of the most well-read person of the country at that time. He became IPS and then got selected for IAS. However he turned both the jobs within short period.
Shrikant sat in the Indian Civil Services Examination in 1978. He was selected in the Indian Police Service and left it. He again appeared for exam and this time was qualified for IAS. However, he resigned from this job only after four months. The reason was to jump into the politics. He won the Maharashtra Assembly elections in 1980. Became the youngest MLA in the country at the age of 26.
Shrikant also holds graduation degree in LLM i.e International Law. Along with it, it has DBM and MBA (Masters in Business Administration) degrees. Shrikant also studied journalism, obtained the degree of Bachelor of Journalism. Then acquired Doctor of Literature in Sanskrit. Which is the highest degree of any university.
He also did MA in Sociology, Economics, History, English Literature, Philosophy, Political Science, Ancient Indian History, Archeology and Psychology. It is also important to note that he achieved all these degrees by staying in merit. He received gold medals several times during his studies. From 1973 to 1990, he gave 42 university exams.
He also became the most powerful minister of Maharashtra. They had 14 departments at that time. He worked there from 1982 to 85. In 1986, he became a member of the Maharashtra Legislative Council. He stayed here till 1992. He was also in the Rajya Sabha between 1992 and 1998.
When Dr. Jichkar lost the Rajya Sabha election in 1999, he focused his attention on the yatras. He went to many parts of the country and gave speeches about health, education and religion there. He represented India at UNESCO. Shrikant had the largest personal library in the country. Which had more than 52000 books.
Jichkar is an academic, painter, professional photographer and stage actor. He established a school in 1992. Later in his age he single-handedly established the Sanskrit University in Maharashtra and became its Chancellor.
Shrikant died on 2 June 2004 leaving his legacy behind.