Tejashwi Yadav questions U-turn by NDA on caste census

Ahead of the Bihar legislative assembly monsoon session beginning from July 26, leader of opposition Tejashwi Prasad Yadav on Thursday slammed the BJP-led NDA governments both at the Centre and the state for allegedly backtracking on caste census issue, writes ETV Bharat Bihar Bureau Chief Amit Bhelari.

Patna: Ahead of the Bihar legislative assembly monsoon session beginning from July 26, leader of opposition Tejashwi Prasad Yadav on Thursday slammed the BJP-led NDA governments at Centre and the state for allegedly taking a U-turn on caste census. Taking potshots at the statement of the Centre that no caste census other than SC, ST will take place, Tejashwi accused the Union and state governments of taking a U-turn on the issue. The anger of Tejashwi is too obvious since the Bihar NDA government had unanimously passed a resolution in both houses of the Bihar legislature to conduct a caste census.

While replying to a question, the Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Nityanand Rai on Tuesday had declared that no caste census other than SC, ST will take place. Rai had stated that as a matter of policy, the Government of India has decided not to enumerate caste-wise populations other than SCs and STs in the census.

"BJP leaders support the caste census in both houses of Bihar but the puppet MP who hails from backward class in the capacity of Minister of State for Home declared that there is no caste census. The central government is going back on its promise and BJP's hatred for the backward and extremely backward class people looks to apparent," Tejashwi stressed.

Nitish Kumar government has been raising its voice in support of the caste census and even went on to pass bills in both houses in 2019 and 2020. The statement of the Minister of State for Home is not only a big jolt to Nitish but also forces him to do some self-introspection on the issue. Opposition leaders are surely going to make it a burning issue in the upcoming monsoon session as the politics of RJD revolves around backward castes. It was RJD supremo Lalu Prasad who has been continuously advocating for a caste census.

Tejashwi further said, "In the census, the animals are also enumerated. Dogs, cats, horses, elephants, lions, and jackals are counted. Which person belongs to which religion is counted, however, the downtrodden, neglected, and backward class people are not counted. What is so difficult about it? You just need to add one extra column in the census form. They don't even need to incur any additional expenditure on it which means no extra financial burden on the centre".

The former Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar, Tejashwi Yadav, pointed out that if the actual number of backward class people would not be known how will they get the benefits of the government schemes. He also raised their plight stating how they will become educationally, socially, politically and financially well off. Not only this Tejashwi also said how the budget would be allotted in the proportion of their population.

"Who are the people who do not want to provide equal share in the resources of the country? Our party has fought the long battle on caste census and will keep on battling on this front. The fate of 65 per cent of the population is related to this issue. Why Modi's government does not want to enumerate the backward Hindus? Are 70 to 80 crore backward people not Hindus?" Tejashwi asserted.

Patna based political expert, Dr Sanjay Kumar, opined that BJP would be on the backfoot and opposition will try to take the maximum advantage during the monsoon session of the Bihar legislature.

"As RJD politics revolves around backward class politics, the opposition will try to get the maximum advantage out of the issue. Tejashwi has good logic on why the centre is not transparent on the caste census. To support his point, he will say that without caste census backward people will not get the benefit of welfare schemes of both centre and state. Bihar politics is purely based on caste equations so such issues suit them well when the question arises on backward caste," Dr Sanjay said.

He further added, "BJP would be on the back foot because they know very well that when the division of vote takes place based on the caste there are great chances of being on the receiving end. Whereas the BJP can only get the benefit when they polarise the Hindu vote bank. Parties like RJD do politics on caste whereas BJP politics is completely based on religion."

RJD has been raising the slogans like "Jiski Jitni Bhagidari, Uski Utni Hissedari" (The bigger their number, the greater their share) for a long time and now the time has come for RJD to raise the slogans once again with loud voices.