Nitish Kumar presses Centre to conduct 'caste census'

The question is what if the Centre rejects Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's repeated appeals to conduct a caste census. His appeal comes three days after the central leadership told the Supreme Court that the caste census exercise in 2021 would not be 'feasible' and that its stand on the issue is a 'conscious policy decision.'

Hyderabad: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar Sunday reiterated his demand on the BJP saying a caste census will be in the "national interest”, and urged the Centre to “reconsider” its position against such an exercise. His appeal comes three days after the central leadership told the Supreme Court that the caste census exercise in 2021 would not be "feasible" and that its stand on the issue is a “conscious policy decision”.

A caste census has been passed in the Bihar Assembly and Legislative Council in February 2021, Nitish told reporters in Delhi: “All of us have already jointly placed our demand. The issue has come up now in connection with the socio-economic caste census matter in the court. It has no connection with our demand. We would like to request that the issue be considered and reconsidered, and caste census be carried out.”

When asked if the JD(U) would exit the NDA should the Centre reject his request, the CM said: “There is no point discussing all that now. We will sit together and decide the future roadmap…and if you look closely, this is not just our demand. The demand has been raised in many states, not just in Bihar. It will be in the national interest.”

It may be recalled that the Chief Minister led a 10-party delegation from the state, including principal rival RJD, to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 23 and to place their demand for a caste census.

The Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment had told the Supreme Court that the data was “unusable” as it contains many technical flaws. Citing the Centre's submission, Nitish Kumar stressed that ruling out a caste census citing errors in the 2011 exercise would be “wrong”. He said that such a census was needed to get “a clear idea about the situation”.

“It will help in identifying castes which remain backward," the CM said, adding, "Consequently, corrective measures can be taken for their development. What they carried out in 2011 was a socio-economic caste census. It was not a caste census. And that was not undertaken properly and was not published. A caste census will be more systematic… To say that caste census cannot take place as the socio-economic caste census report is not right is not correct."