AMN
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today declared that a caste-based census will be undertaken in Bihar after a consensus was reached among all parties, including the BJP, at an all party-meet chaired by him today. Mr Kumar further added that all the parties including their ally BJP were on board. After the consensus was reached at the all-party meet, the proposal will now be sent for a cabinet nod.
Talking to reporters after all party meeting Nitish Kumar said in the meeting, we unanimously decided that a caste-based census will be done in a set time frame. Soon a cabinet decision will be taken and it will be available in the public domain. Mr Kumar said the state government will bear the cost of caste census.
Briefing reporters after the meeting, which had been hanging fire for several months, Kumar said the exercise will be given the name jaati adharit ganana’ (caste-based headcount), but clarified that it will be a survey much larger in scope as it will take into account people belonging to all religions and their socio-economic conditions.
The necessary cabinet clearance will be given soon and we will ensure that the work is completed fast by fixing a time limit, he said in presence of delegates of all parties.
Kumar underscored that there was unanimity among members of all parties on the issue, as had been evident earlier when unanimous resolutions favouring a caste census were passed by the state legislature in 2019 and 2020.
The caste census has become an emotive issue in Bihar where politics has been dominated by OBCs, whose last headcount was conducted during the British raj.
Kumar, who owes his own rise in no small measure to the Mandal uprising, had headed the all-party delegation that met the PM last year and, after the Centre expressed its inability to extend the census beyond Dalits and tribals.
He stressed that it was wrong to believe that the BJP, his ally in the state as well as the Centre, was opposed to a caste census, a charge repeatedly made by opposition parties like the RJD.
The Centre expressed its inability. It does not mean they (BJP) were opposed (to caste census) at any time. Their representatives accompanied us when we met the PM. You can see their representatives here, Kumar said.
The BJP was represented at the meeting, among others, by Deputy CM Tarkishor Prasad and state unit chief Sanjay Jaiswal.
The chief minister, who belongs to the JD(U), said the findings of the survey will be shared with political parties and the public from time to time, making use of all communication forums, including social media.
He, however, evaded questions about the mammoth exercise costing the impoverished state a bomb.
Kumar’s former deputy Tejashwi Yadav, who is currently the leader of the opposition and was present at the meeting as a representative of the RJD, was of the view that the state’s survey should get financial aid from the Centre.