Tributes to Srikant Jichkar

14/ September /1954 Died on June 02; 2004

Meet Shrikant Jichkar the most qualified man in India.

“To know is to know that you know nothing. That is the meaning of true knowledge”—Socrates.

The Marathi man, who died in a car accident in 2004, has the distinction of being “the most qualified person” in India according to the Limca Book of Records.

He was born into a Marathi family based in Aajangaon near Nagpur. A scholar with interests in myriad subjects, he began as a doctor (MBBS and MD) and went on to complete 20 post-graduate university degrees with gold medals in most of them.

Here it goes, He began as a Medical Doctor (MBBS and MD) then he did his Law (LL.B.) with Post-graduation in International Law (LL.M.) and his Masters in Business Administration (DBM and MBA) and also a bachelor in Journalism (B.Journ). He did his master’s in ten subjects they are M.A. (Public Administration; M.A. (Sociology); M.A. (Economics); M.A. (Sanskrit); M.A. (History); M.A.(English Literature); M.A. (Philosophy); M.A. (Political Science); M.A. (Ancient Indian History, Culture, and Archaeology); M.A (Psychology). He got his D. Litt. (Doctor of Letters) in Sanskrit, the highest of any Degree in a University. Most of his Degrees are with First Merit and he has obtained several Gold Medals for his degrees. Between 1973 and 1990 he has written 42 University Examinations, every summer, and every winter. In 1978 he wrote the IPS (Indian Police Service) examination and got into it, resigned, wrote the prestigious IAS (Indian Administrative Services) examination in 1980, and got into it, resigning in four months to contest his first general election. In 1980, he was elected to Maharashtra Legislative Assemble becoming the youngest MLA in the country at 25, and subsequently became a very powerful government Minister holding 14 portfolios at a time.

Jichkar was also an academician, painter, professional photographer, and stage actor.

If these are his qualification apart from his hobbies he was a traveler and traveled all around India speaking on health, economics, and also giving religious discourses. Jichkar was an active Amateur radio operator and used the call sign VU2SJA.

He had one of the biggest personal libraries in India with 52,000 books.