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JD(U) delegation meets Shah over caste census
NEW DELHI: As calls for a caste-based census grow, a delegation of Janata Dal (United) MPs, led by party president Lalan Singh, met Union home minister Amit Shah on Monday
NEW DELHI: As calls for a caste-based census grow, a delegation of Janata Dal (United) MPs, led by party president Lalan Singh, met Union home minister Amit Shah on Monday. The demand comes ahead of the upcoming assembly elections in five states, including in Uttar Pradesh where caste composition is perceived to play a key role in determining electoral outcome.
On Saturday, the JD(U) passed a resolution in support of the caste-based counting of population, a move with potentially wide political ramifications, during its national executive meeting. The Bihar assembly has passed unanimous resolutions, in 2019 and 2020, favouring a census on the caste lines.
“Bihar assembly has passed a resolution favouring caste-based census twice, which was supported by the BJP as well. All the party MPs from Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha signed the memorandum and explained all the benefits of caste-based census pointwise to the home minister,” Singh told reporters after the meeting, stressing that it is now up to the central government to take the final decision.
According to a person aware of the details, Shah is learnt to have told the delegation that the government will discuss the issue.
On Sunday, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar said that he will seek an appointment with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss the issue of a caste-based census. Kumar, who is the de facto leader of the JD(U), however, asserted that divergent stands adopted by his party and the BJP, which heads the Union government, on the issue will not affect the coalition. Apart from JDU, another ally of the BJP, the Republican Party of India, has also demanded a caste-based census.
The last caste-based census was conducted in 1931. In 1941, however, the data was collected but not made public. In 2011, a Socio Economic Caste Census for collecting data on the basis of caste and economic status of every household in the country was carried out but the caste data was again not made public, citing “discrepancies”. At present, apart from the Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes, the other backward castes are grouped under the OBC category.
The Centre has said, as a matter of policy, there will be no enumeration as per caste other than that for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) for the census. It has cited the provisions of the Constitution and reservation of seats for SCs and STs in Lok Sabha and in the assemblies as per their proportion in the population.
