On March 9, Bihar’s Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav and other Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leaders and workers sat on a dharna outside the party office to demand 65% reservation in government jobs in the state. This was part of a series of positions the Opposition party has taken on the issue of caste census, a key poll plank for the state Assembly elections later this year.
In recent public addresses, Yadav has alleged that “the BJP and the RSS are completely against reservation, this is why they don’t want a caste census.” With the Union Cabinet approving caste enumeration in the next general Census, the BJP-led NDA hopes to dull the sharpness of the Opposition’s primary poll pitch.
JD(U) working president Sanjay Kumar Jha told The Indian Express that “The caste census issue is now in our favour. Yes, you (the Opposition) have been demanding it. But, people will remember the person who did it. What were you doing when you were in power for 58 years? You didn’t do it. It took a Narendra Modi to do it. And Nitish Kumar has already done it in Bihar. To increase the quota based on the caste survey was also the CM’s call. All along, the BJP was with us on this.”
According to JD(U) national spokesperson Rajiv Ranjan Prasad, the NDA has already planned statewide meetings and press briefings to drive home the point that caste census was its initiative. Prasad said the alliance’s leaders would also talk about the positions that Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, and Rajiv Gandhi took on reservation and Mandal politics.
The RJD was in power in Bihar for 15 years starting in 1990. It did not do a caste census. Nitish Kumar did it. When the RJD was with the Congress at the Centre, it did not put pressure on the government to release the 2011 caste census (SECC) data. Today, the Bihar model has been adopted by the country. The BJP has always said caste census will be done at the right time. Had the Census been announced and had caste enumeration not been a part of it, only then could there have been an argument against the BJP. We will go to people with this message, Prasad said.
BJP leaders in Bihar feel the government’s decision will also wash away the criticism that the party has been dragging its feet on the issue. In response to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi raising the caste issue ahead of the Lok Sabha polls last year, PM Narendra Modi had said there were only four castes: women, youth, farmers, and the poor. This created the impression that the BJP was skirting the issue.
The Opposition, meanwhile, is claiming credit for the announcement. Both the RJD and the Congress have said it is their relentless campaign on caste census that forced the NDA’s hand. RJD leaders have quoted their party’s founder Lalu Prasad as having said last September, “We will hold the RSS and the BJP by the ear, make them squat and get the caste census done.”
Beyond this, the Opposition plans to corner the NDA on whether the caste census data will translate into an overall increase in reservations and, if so, how. “It is good that the government has decided to do a caste census. But Bihar had increased reservation to 65% and the court struck it down. When we sent it (quota hike) to the Centre and asked it to be put in the Ninth Schedule so that it goes out of the purview of judicial review, they didn’t do it. The whole idea of the caste survey was to increase reservations. But the BJP is not making any commitment. This is just an election stunt. We will lead with this narrative,” RJD MP Sudhakar Singh told The Indian Express.
Reference : https://indianexpress.com/article/political-pulse/caste-census-bihar-polls-nda-rjd-9980044/
