Unease in NDA after Centre affidavit on caste census
Recently, an all-party delegation from Bihar, led by chief minister Nitish Kumar, had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi to press for a caste enumeration in Census 2021.
PATNA
Unease among constituents of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) as well as Opposition paries in Bihar was palpable on Friday, a day after the central government, in an affidavit in the Supreme Court, virtually ruled out a caste census.
Recently, an all-party delegation from Bihar, led by chief minister Nitish Kumar, had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi to press for a caste enumeration in Census 2021.
First to react was former CM and Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad. “All types of birds, animals, trees and plants can be counted but not humans belonging to the other backward classes and the extremely backward classes. Wow! Why does the BJP-RSS have so much of antipathy for the backwards? Caste census would have benefited all. It would have given an exact idea of population of respective segments,” he tweeted in Hindi.
Leader of opposition Tejashwi Yadav served an ultimatum to CM Nitish Kumar and asked him to clear his stand within three days. “We will continue our fight for caste census and will request the CM to clear his stand in three days. After that we will decide how to take this fight forward,” said Tejashwi while talking to mediapersons.
Congress spokesperson Rajesh Rathore said the CM should clarify whether he is with BJP or with the people’s sentiment.
Former CM Jitan Ram Manjhi, whose party HAM-S is an NDA constituent, said, “It was agreed to conduct caste census in the all-party meeting, then why was the affidavit not given as per the decision. We will again request the central government to consider it.”
Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh, president of the ruling Janata Dal (United) to which CM Kumar belongs, said one should wait for the SC decision. “The census has not started yet. The Centre has only placed before the SC its views,” he said.
The BJP, which was part of the all-party delegation that met the PM, justified the Centre’s stance. “The central government has clarified the whole situation by stating the reasons for not getting it done in the affidavit. It has been said that in the SECC (Socio-Economic Caste Census) conducted a few years back, four lakh 28,000 castes have been mentioned, “said BJP’s Bihar unit president Dr Sanjay Jaiswal.
