As Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ask for a caste-based census, BJP leader and former deputy CM Sushil Modi said that his party is not against such an exercise.
“BJP was never against caste-based census, we have also been part of resolutions passed in the legislative assembly and council in its support. The delegation that will meet PM Modi also includes a BJP representative,” Sushil Modi wrote in a series of posts on Sunday.
In another tweet, Sushil Modi said BJP’s Gopinath Munde had spoken in favour of a caste-based count in parliament. “When the then government conducted a social, economic and caste-based assessment, there were shortcomings in data. The number of communities ran into lakhs. That report was not made public because of the errors. It was not part of the Census,” he said.
He added that the last time a caste-based count took place was in 1931, under British rule, when Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha were one entity.
ब्रिटिश राज में 1931 की अंतिम बार जनगणना के समय बिहार, झारखंड और उड़ीसा एक थे। उस समय के बिहार की लगभग 1 करोड़ की आबादी में मात्र 22 जातियों की ही जनगणना की गई थी। अब 90 साल बाद आर्थिक, सामाजिक, भौगोलिक और राजनीतिक परिस्तिथियों में बड़ा फर्क आ चुका है।— Sushil Kumar Modi (@SushilModi) August 22, 2021
“At the time, of around 1 crore people in Bihar, only people of 22 castes were counted. After 90 years, there are big differences now – economic, social, geographical and political. There are technical and practical difficulties in a caste-based census, but still, the BJP supports it in principle,” he said on Twitter.
A report in NDTV said that Sushil Modi’s comments betrayed the ruling BJP’s tough political tightrope walk on the subject weeks after the government told parliament that it had decided not to carry out a caste-based count as a matter of policy.
The comments come as Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, the Leader of Opposition in Bihar Legislative Assembly, Tejashwi Yadav and leaders from 10 political parties are scheduled to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi to demand a caste-based census at 11:00 am on Monday.
All parties in Bihar have called for a caste census, but for the BJP, it is a politically tricky subject with the state agenda at odds with the national view.
भाजपा कभी जातीय जनगणना के विरोध में नहीं रही, इसीलिए हम इस मुद्दे पर विधान सभा और विधान परिषद में पारित प्रस्ताव का हिस्सा रहे हैं। प्रधानमंत्री नरेंद्र मोदी से मिलने वाले बिहार के प्रतिनिधिमण्डल में भी भाजपा शामिल है।— Sushil Kumar Modi (@SushilModi) August 22, 2021
The demand for a caste census was triggered by a statement by the Centre in Parliament last month that populations of only SCs and STs were proposed to be enumerated.
In states like Bihar, where OBCs have dominated politics since the Mandal era, this has led to a vociferous demand for a headcount of backward classes as well. Kumar reiterated that there is a countrywide sentiment in favour of a caste census being conducted at least once. There should be no misgivings as such an exercise will be beneficial for all social groups.
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