Patna: Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Prasad Yadav on Friday met Chief Minister Nitish Kumar at his official chamber in Bihar Legislative Assembly to discuss the caste census issue. Tejashwi asked Nitish to enumerate the caste census on the lines of Karnataka. Accompanied by his elder brother Tej Pratap Yadav and MLAs from Congress and Left parties, Tejashwi held a closed-door meeting with the CM which lasted for twenty minutes.
During the meeting, Tejashwi requested the CM to form an all-party committee and said that the delegation should meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ask him to reconsider decision on caste census. “As we all know that the proposal of the caste census was unanimously passed in both houses of the Bihar Legislature in which BJP was also part of. Now, the Central government in Parliament has rejected caste census. Hence, it is our responsibility to ensure that a caste census must be conducted. During the meeting, I requested him to form an all-party committee and seek appointment with PM for the committee to share its views,” Tejashwi said in the Assembly premises after meeting Nitish.
Read:| RJD MP demands caste-based census in 2021
Six days ago, Nitish Kumar too had urged the Centre to reconsider its decision and also reminded the BJP-led NDA government in the Centre that the Bihar Assembly had passed a proposal in 2019 and 2020 in this regard. Nitish had requested the Centre to enumerate caste census at least once so that along with SCs/STs the other section of people will get the benefit and accordingly the schemes and policy would be designed for their development.
Earlier, while replying to a question in the Parliament, the Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai had declared that no caste census other than SC, ST will be conducted. Tejashwi further said that there would be no meaning in passing the proposal in both houses if the caste census would not be conducted.
“Nitish Ji always says that he supports caste census but who will conduct it. There is a double engine government both in the Centre and state. We have requested the CM to seek appointment with the PM for our delegation to meet him. Nitish Ji has said that once he returns from Delhi on August 2, he will write to the PM seeking his time for a meeting," Tejashwi said. The first caste census took place in 1931 and after that, no caste-based census has taken place in the country till now.
Tejashwi further said that he also suggested to the CM that if the PM fails to allocate time for us, then the state government should conduct the caste census on the lines of Karnataka. “I have also given him a suggestion that if the PM fails to give an appointment, then the state government itself can conduct the caste census the way Karnataka did with its own expenditure. Nitish Ji was not aware of Karnataka census, so he said first, he would like to go through the papers related to the caste census in Karnataka and how it was carried out. Only then, he can say anything on it,” Tejashwi said.
Read:| Athawale demands caste-based census in 2021
Karnataka is the first state in India that took the initiative to conduct a social and educational survey popularly known as the caste census. The caste census was conducted by Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes in 2015. It was conducted by the Kanthraj Commission. Last week Tejashwi took potshots at Centre for taking a U-turn on the caste census. On Friday, Tejashwi said that if the census of trees, dogs, cats, horses, elephants, lions and jackals are conducted, why not a census of downtrodden people.
Former Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar, Tejashwi also reiterated that if the actual number of backward class people would not be known then how they will get the benefit of the government schemes. He also raised their plight stating how they will become educationally, socially, politically and financially well off without caste census.
Meanwhile, BJP MLC and former Union Minister Sanjay Paswan tried to divert the issue by demanding a poverty census instead of a caste census. Paswan reached the premises hanging a placard around his neck demanding a poverty census. “There is no need for any caste census because needy people have already got the reservation and now there is a need to identify the poor people. I do not know what others are thinking, but poverty is the biggest issue and we need to know the actual number of poor people. So those demanding the caste census must understand that India tops in terms of poor people. Demanding caste census means dividing society by caste lines,” Paswan said.
Patna-based political expert Dr Sanjay Kumar said that people should not read anything between the lines as far as Nitsh-Tejashwi meeting today. “Through this meeting, Tejashwi wants to send a bigger message that Nitish should not only be theoretical but practical as well if both are on the same page on this issue. That's the reason, he went one step forward by citing the example of Karnataka, otherwise there is no other reason for the meeting. People should not try to read anything between the lines. At the same time, as you know that politics is all about possibilities but in the present situation I do not see anything except the caste census issue,” Dr Sanjay asserted.
Read:| Nitish Kumar asks Centre to reconsider its decision on caste census
