After an all party meeting on caste census on Wednesday, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has announced that a caste-based “count” rather than census will be conducted in the state to avoid any complications. All parties including BJP were in consensus, he said.
“We will propose a caste-based count, not census, to avoid legal complications,” Mr Kumar told media.
The Chief Minister said, all parties agreed including BJP, which has always given heavy reservations as per caste-based census.
“To implement this a proposal will be passed in the state cabinet. The aim is that every section of the society can progress properly,” Mr Kumar said.
Although, the CM told the time-frame to conduct the census but as he did not elaborate, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, who was sitting besides him signalled that the exercise may begin after festival season.
Other states like Odisha, Telangana and Karnataka have also conducted similar exercises in name of a ” socio-economic survey”.
During the tenure of Congress-led UPA government a national caste-based census was conducted, however the data was not released owing to technical grounds. When BJP came to power, it denied to carry out the caste-based census and gave states the power to decide and conduct their own caste count.
After the Centre denied to conduct counting of any social group except Schedules Castes and Scheduled Tribes, the Nitish Kumar administration decided to conduct survey on their own.
BJP and Nitish Kumar led Janata Dal United (JNU) have their alliance in Bihar. Last year, Mr Kumar had even met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss upon caste-based census, on behalf of all parties.
Mostly all parties in Bihar are in support of this caste-based census, but BJP on the other hand has been stuck between the demands from Bihar unit and the central government’s stance.
Meanwhile, Centre believes that a caste-based census ia a divisive act but parties in Bihar believe that knowing the caste-based population may lead to formulation of better policies for the neglected communities in the society.
The RJD has even said that the last caste based census was held in 1931 and all the government policies have been formed according to the data back then.
