Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday welcomed the Central government’s announcement that caste survey would be included in the next census and said the decision will further accelerate the development in the country.
Leader of the opposition in the state assembly, Tejashwi Yadav, described the Centre’s decision as the victory of socialists and RJD boss Lalu Prasad.
Earlier in the day, Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Ashwini Vaishnaw announced that caste enumeration would be included in the forthcoming census exercise in a “transparent” manner.
In a post on X, Kumar said, “It is a matter of great satisfaction that the central government has decided to conduct a caste census. Conducting a caste census will help determine the population of different sections, which will also facilitate the formulation of plans for their upliftment and development. This will further accelerate the country’s development.”
Kumar, also the JD(U) supremo, thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the decision.
Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary also praised the Centre for the “historic decision”.
“We are confident that this decision will bring forth exact information about the economic-social aspects of the needy sections of society, and more effective plans will be formulated for the upliftment of deprived communities,” Choudhary said in a post on X.
Opposition RJD, however, termed the Centre’s decision as a victory for socialists and party supremo Lalu Prasad.
Soon after the announcement by the Center, RJD supremo Lalu Prasad said when he was the national president of the Janata Dal, the United Front government decided in 1996-97 to conduct a caste-based census in 2001.
“However, later the then NDA government led by late Atal Bihari Vajpayee did not implement it. In the 2011 census, we again raised a strong demand in Parliament for a caste-based census,” he said.
Prasad said that he, along with the late Mulayam Singh Yadav and late Sharad Yadav, stalled Parliament for several days over this demand, and only after the assurance from the then Prime Minister, the late Manmohan Singh, to conduct a socio-economic survey, they allowed Parliament to function.
“What we socialists thought about 30 years ago—reservation, caste census, equality, fraternity, secularism, etc.—others start following decades later. Those who called us casteists for demanding a caste-based census have now received a fitting reply. There is still much left to do. We will keep making these Sanghis dance to our agenda,” the RJD supremo said.
The first-ever caste-based survey in the country was also conducted in Bihar during our 17-month Mahagathbandhan government, Lalu said in a statement.
Echoing a similar view, the RJD’s leader, Tejashwi Yadav said in an X post: “This is our ideological victory….our fight for social justice, will now be the next step. What we do today, others will think about 35-40 years later. Now we will reserve seats for the backward and extremely backward classes in the Legislative Assembly, Legislative Council, Lok Sabha, and Rajya Sabha. Many recommendations of the Mandal Commission are still to be implemented. Long live social justice!”.
Yadav congratulated socialist leaders like his father Prasad, claiming they forced the NDA government to reconsider the caste-census decision.
He also shared photographs of RJD workers bursting crackers.
The Bihar government in 2023 conducted a caste survey and also tabled the findings of the survey report in the assembly in November that year.
The findings of the caste survey put OBCs and Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs) at a whopping 63.13 per cent of the state’s population of 13.07 crore and the upper castes at 15.52 per cent.
