2 Bihar Cong leaders find fault with caste survey, ask why upper caste declined

PATNA: Two Bihar Congress leaders have faulted the caste survey conducted by the Nitish Kumar-led government and calls for apportioning resources proportional to the demographic weight of communities, arguing that the report did not accurately reflect the number of the upper castes in the state and that the chief minister should start with giving proportionate representation to different castes from his council of ministers.

In a string of posts on social media platform X after the caste data was released on October 2, Bihar Congress leader Anil Kumar Sharma questioned the integrity of the data collected by government employees during the survey and the decline in the population of the so-called upper castes.

“My reaction to the call for the proportion of the population determining rights is this. It is surprising that as compared to the 2011 census, the proportion of all communities has increased whereas the upper castes have reduced from 17% to 11%,” he said in a post.

Sharma also challenged Nitish Kumar to induct three deputy chief ministers from the extremely backward classes (EBC), muslim and scheduled caste (SC) communities in line with the call for apportioning resources in proportion to a community’s demographic weight.

Another Bihar Congress veteran, Kishore Kumar Jha, who has for years argued that the Congress should focus on upper castes, said the government must introspect why the number of people from the forward castes has been on the decline since 1990.

The aggressive assertions of backward communities post-Mandal era and the subsequent lawlessness in Bihar compelled many from the upper classes to relocate to other places for safety, better life and education of their wards, he said. Jha said they still have their roots in their native villages. “But they would not have been counted,” Jha said.

Congress legislature party (CLP) leader Shakeel Ahmad Khan brushed aside such concerns.

“The survey was intended to assess the economic conditions of people of different castes and their share in the population. It will be the only authentic data to plan developmental schemes in the absence of census data, which has been delayed for three-four years,” said Khan, who is also among the upper castes in the state.

The Congress and other opposition parties hope the caste survey turns the OBC into a potent electoral bloc and fragments the Bharatiya Janata Party’s rainbow Hindu coalition.

Bihar’s caste survey results showed that extremely backward communities — which comprise 112 castes — constituted 36.01% of the state’s population, and backward castes — formed by 30 communities — made up another 27.12%. Together, OBC — the umbrella group consisting of backward castes and EBCs in the state — is 63.13%, confirming estimates by exercises such as the National Family Health Surveys. Scheduled Castes form 19.65% and Scheduled Tribes 1.68%.