Whenever there's a discussion about the most educated person in India, one name comes up: Dr. Shrikant Jichkar. He was also the most educated Indian politician.
Shrikant Jichkar was born on September 14, 1954, in Katol, Maharashtra. This remarkable individual achieved what few could.
Between 1973 and 1990, Shrikant Jichkar took an exam every summer and winter. He passed a total of 42 university exams and earned 20 degrees.
These degrees weren't in just one or two fields, but in diverse areas like medicine, law, public administration, politics, philosophy, Sanskrit, journalism, and history.
He first cleared the UPSC and became an IPS officer in 1978. He took the UPSC exam again and became an IAS officer in 1980. But he wanted to achieve something big in politics.
At just 26, he became the youngest MLA in Maharashtra. He then became a minister and held responsibility for 14 ministries simultaneously.
Shrikant Jichkar was an MLA from 1980 to 1985, then a member of the Maharashtra Legislative Council from 1986 to 1992. Later, he served as a Rajya Sabha MP from 1992 to 1998.
In 1992, he took another big step in the field of education by establishing Sandipani School, which continues to educate children in Nagpur today.
On June 2, 2004, at the age of 49, Shrikant Jichkar died in a car accident near Kondhali, near Nagpur.
Dr. Shrikant Jichkar wasn't just a champion of degrees; he was someone who set an example in every field: education, administration, politics, and social service.