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‘One against caste census is against equality’: Lalu Yadav on Patna HC's order
The Patna high court put an interim stay on the enumeration of castes and economic survey in Bihar.
RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav on Friday reacted on the Patna high court's order to put an interim stay on the enumeration of castes and economic survey in Bihar, saying that whoever is against it is “against equality and humanity”.
“The one who is against caste enumeration is a supporter of poverty, unemployment, backwardness, social and economic discrimination,” Lalu Yadav wrote in a tweet.
Also read: Caste census in last stage, halting it will cause loss to exchequer: Bihar govt to HC
Hitting out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the RJD supremo asked, “Why is the BJP afraid of counting the majority of backward castes?” “The people of the country have understood the devious trick and cleverness of the BJP on the caste census,” he added.
On Thursday, the Patna high court issued an interim order staying Bihar’s caste-based survey - which was launched in January - saying prima facie the state government has no power to carry it out. A division bench of Chief Justice K Vinod Chandran and Justice Madhuresh Prasad directed the authorities to secure the data collected as part of a two-phased enumeration exercise.
The court has fixed July 7 as the next date for the hearing of petitions against the survey.
Also read: Kharge's letter to Modi as Rahul Gandhi dares on caste census: ‘I am afraid…’
Meanwhile, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar has maintained that the state is not conducting a caste census but only collecting information related to people’s economic status in order to serve them better.
Kumar on Thursday said, “I cannot understand, why people have a problem with the survey. The last time a headcount was done was way back in 1931. We certainly have a fresh estimate. After all, the census takes into account respective populations of minorities, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes every ten years.”
