Caste survey: All details will be put before House, says Nitish

Details collected during the caste survey, including the educational and socio-economic data, would be placed before the House during the forthcoming winter session of the state legislature.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday said all details collected during the caste survey, including the educational and socio-economic data, would be placed before the House during the forthcoming winter session of the state legislature.

Nitish Kumar pays tribute to Jaiprakash Narayan on his birth anniversary in Patna Wednesday. (HT photo)

“Everything will be placed before the House to get the feedback from the legislators. We had called an all-party meeting to apprise everyone of the findings. Now, it will be circulated to all in the House and then the future course of action will be decided,” Kumar, who was flanked by deputy CM Tejashwi Prasad Yadav and JD-U president Rajiv Ranjan alias Lalan Singh, told reporters after paying tributes to Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan in Patna.

On whether the reservation ambit would be extended, Kumar said he would not comment on this before placing all the findings on the floor of the House. “We will listen to all and them decide what to do next. Whatever the government has to do will be done, but I cannot comment on that at this stage. Don’t worry about that,” he said.

“I don’t know who is saying what. There is no sense in these allegations. I don’t pay heed to them. The BJP has hijacked the media and so its leaders keep making all kinds of statements, but I am least bothered about that. The people will decide how the country needs to be run in 2024, not they. We are doing everything to unitedly fight them,” he said, hitting out at BJP state president Samrat Choudhary, without naming him, as a “party hopper adept at making baseless statements”.

Kumar said the BJP leader was earlier in the RJD and was made the MLA despite being under age and later a minister by Lalu Prasad. “He is now in the BJP. He changes party every now and then. The man (Lalu Prasad) he is talking about is no ordinary person. I don’t care what he says,” he said.

On Lalu Prasad’s statement with reference to caste survey that a “pill for headache cannot cure cancer”, Choudhary had hit back, saying that “a convicted RJD chief is himself cancer for Bihar, responsible for unleashing anarchy in the state and now fanning caste tension for his own selfish interest”.

Meanwhile, former CM Jitan Ram Manjhi accused the government of ignoring nearly 50% of the population and presenting a hypothetical data to suit its interests. “Those who benefit from the survey will certainly speak in favour, but those whose numbers have been reduced will definitely oppose it. Even if the existing data is accepted, the government should present its road map and restructure the cabinet to give all castes due representation,” he said.

Bihar government had, on October 2, released the first tranche of the caste survey data, which is being viewed as game changing exercise by the I.N.D.I.A. parties ahead of the 2024 General Elections to counter the BJP narrative for consolidation on religious lines. More and more states ruled by the non-BJP parties are now backing it.

The Mahagathbandhan government in Bihar – an alliance of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United), the Rashtriya Janata Dal, and the Congress — ordered the survey on the basis of previous NDA government’s cabinet decision on June 6, 2022 after the Centre declined its request for a headcount of social groups other than SCs, STs and religious minorities as part of the Census.

The first round of the caste survey was conducted between January 7 and 21. The second round started on April 15 and was scheduled to continue till May 15, but was stopped following the HC order. It started again on August 1 after the bench of Chief Justice K Vinod Chandran and Justice Partha Sarthy removed the stay and dismissed the writ petitions against the caste survey.