Patna: The primary section of a caste-based census being performed in Bihar started Saturday. The train, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has stated, will assist the state collect the socio-economic standing of each group. “As soon as the enumeration train is full, we’ll ship the findings to the Centre,” he informed media individuals.
“The BJP didn’t need a caste census. Prime Minister Narendra Modi rejected our demand”, stated Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, stressing that the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has been demanding that such a survey be performed for a very long time.
When Nitish first got here to energy in 2005, he had usually declared that he believed within the politics of jamaat (lots) and never jaat (caste). However through the years, his affiliation to caste politics has elevated.
The change in his stance — from jamaat to jaat — is being defined by political observers on account of his dipping political affect. The by-polls held in three seats final yr — Kurhani, Gopalganj and Mokama — counsel that even his primary vote financial institution, consisting of EBCs, Kurmis and Kushwahas, have begun deserting him.
“The unique hero of caste politics in Bihar is Lalu Prasad Yadav. Nitish Kumar by no means ignored caste, however he supplemented it with good governance. Sadly, his political returns have been dwindling. Due to this fact, the caste thrust is his try to revive the Mandal politics and decelerate the BJP’s try to saffronise JD(U)’s vote financial institution,” stated N.Ok. Choudhary, former professor at Patna College, to ThePrint.
The Bharatiya Janata Occasion (BJP), nonetheless, is uncertain Nitish’s caste thrust will work.
“How can Nitish take benefit [of caste] when each political social gathering is supporting caste politics? In the course of the Mandal politics section, there was a pressure opposing it,” stated BJP chief and former deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi to ThePrint.
Including that the leaders of the grand alliance within the state are distorting info, Sushil Kumar Modi added: “The choice to have a caste survey was taken on 9 June in a cupboard assembly. The BJP was part of the federal government then. We have been a part of the all-parties delegation that met the PM on the demand for a caste census. We want to ask the CM why it has taken so lengthy to do a caste census and why he has not held an all-party meet to present particulars concerning the methodology.”
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Nitish’s caste census, and its pitfalls
Politicians have identified that Nitish is looking for to do what Lalu did within the 2015 meeting polls — when he took a assertion made by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat calling for a ‘social evaluation’ of reservation, and used it to create a caste divide between higher and backward castes. Nitish, they are saying, is trying one thing comparable together with his caste politics.
In 2006, he had introduced in 20 per cent reservation for the Extraordinarily Backward Caste (EBC) in panchayats and native our bodies. In 2009, he divided Dalits by making a separate ‘Mahadalit’ group consisting of 21 sub-castes of Dalits.
Following the 2020 meeting polls within the state, Nitish had supported the decision of RJD chief Lalu Prasad for a caste census by the central authorities and, in August 2021, headed an all-party delegation to fulfill PM Modi demanding a caste census. And, after ending the alliance with the BJP, he put caste survey on the forefront of his political agenda.
However the caste census isn’t with out its issues.
Karnataka did a caste survey in 2015, however is but to launch the report. The explanation, reportedly, being that the inhabitants of a dominant caste turned out to be a lot lower than what was anticipated and neither the Congress nor the BJP are keen to launch the report.
The caste census initiated by the Centre in 2011 noticed as many as 46 lakh castes in India and couldn’t be launched attributable to errors.
The caste survey being carried out in Bihar is scheduled to be launched in June when politicking for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls could have picked up considerably.
“It might result in battle within the OBC teams. As an illustration, if the inhabitants of 1 caste is revealed lower than one other group’s, they could begin agitating that the caste survey has been doctored,” stated a BJP chief, who wished to not be named, to ThePrint, recalling that within the mid-Nineties, contradictions throughout the OBC blocks had began surfacing. “Nitish, has ventured right into a path which can carry out extra controversies than options.”
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