Patna (Bihar): Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his deputy Tejashwi Yadav on Tuesday targeted the Central government over their affidavit in the Supreme Court on Bihar’s government decision to conduct a caste-based census in the state.
While speaking to the media, Nitish said “It is the Central government's duty to conduct a census, we only want to conduct a survey in the state. Census is what is done at the Centre level and we can't do that. We want to gather financial information about the different people irrespective of any caste, rich or poor, Hindu or Muslim living in the state so that, we can work for their welfare.”
Tejashwi targeted the central government over changing the affidavit and said it showed the saffron party was "scared". "As far as the affidavit is concerned, the real face of the people of BJP has been exposed. The affidavit was changed overnight. It shows that the BJP is scared. They never wanted a caste-based census...What is BJP scared of? Why was the affidavit filed?" the RJD leader said while speaking to media.
The Central government on Monday in its reply to the Supreme Court on the Bihar government’s caste-based survey filed an affidavit and said that only it is entitled to conduct a census. The Centre soon withdrew the affidavit and filed a fresh one stating that it was withdrawing the earlier one in which a paragraph had "inadvertently" "crept in".