Bihar caste survey will be placed in Assembly for deciding future action: Nitish

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday said that all the details of the state’s caste survey, including the educational and socio-economic data, would be placed before the legislative assembly during the forthcoming winter session of the House and the future course of action, including whether the reservation ambit would be extended, would be decided after taking feedback from the lawmakers.

“Everything will be placed before the House to get feedback from the legislators. We had called an all-party meeting to apprise everyone of the findings. Now, it will be circulated to all in the House and then the future course of action will be decided,” he said, flanked by deputy CM Tejashwi Prasad Yadav and Janata Dal-United (JD-U) president Rajiv Ranjan alias Lalan Singh, after paying tributes to Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan in Patna.

On whether the reservation ambit would be extended, Kumar said he would not comment on anything of this sort before placing all the findings on the floor of the House. “We will listen to all and then decide what to do next. Whatever the government has to do will be done, but I cannot comment on that at this stage. Don’t worry about that,” he added.

Bihar chief secretary Amir Subhani had also said a couple of days ago that the need for any review of the caste survey data has not been felt by the government and that the government will release all the figures at the appropriate time.

Despite growing opposition from leaders cutting across party lines to the caste survey findings about some caste groups, which claim to have been shown in lesser number, Kumar said the exercise had been completed in Bihar properly and now the result was that a similar demand was growing in other states also.

“I don’t know who is saying what. There is no sense in these allegations. I don’t pay heed to them. The BJP has hijacked the media and so its leaders keep making all kinds of statements, but I am least bothered about that. The people will decide how the country needs to be run in 2024, not they. We are doing everything to unitedly fight them,” he said.

He also hit out at Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state president Samrat Choudhary for saying Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader and former chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav was “cancer for Bihar”.

On Lalu Prasad’s statement with reference to caste survey that a “pill for headache cannot cure cancer”, Choudhary had hit back, saying that “a convicted RJD chief is himself cancer for Bihar, responsible for unleashing anarchy in the state and now fanning caste tension for his own selfish interest”.

Kumar called Choudhary a “party hopper adept at making baseless statements”, withouth naming him. Kumar said that the BJP leader was earlier in the RJD and was made an MLA despite being “underage” and later a minister by Lalu Prasad Yadav. “He is now in the BJP. He changed party every now and then. The man (Lalu Prasad) he is talking about is no ordinary person. I don’t care what he says,” he added.

Former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi accused the government of ignoring nearly 50% of the population and presenting hypothetical data to suit its interests. “Everyone was for caste survey. Earlier I thought around 25% population may have been skipped, but now it seems up to 50%. Those who benefit from the survey will certainly speak in favour, but those whose numbers have been reduced will definitely oppose it. Even if the existing data is accepted, the government should present its roadmap and restructure the cabinet to give all castes due representation,” he added.

The Bihar government on October 2 released the first tranche of caste survey data, which is being viewed as a game changing exercise by the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) parties ahead of the 2024 General Elections to counter the BJP. More and more states ruled by the non-BJP parties are now backing it.

The Mahagathbandhan government in Bihar-- comprising the JD-U, the RJD, and the Congress-- ordered the survey based on the previous NDA government’s cabinet decision on June 6, 2022, after the Centre declined its request for a headcount of social groups other than SCs, STs and religious minorities as part of the census.

The first round of the caste survey was conducted between January 7 and 21. The second round started on April 15 and was scheduled to continue till May 15, but was stopped following a high court order. It started again on August 1 after the bench of chief justice K Vinod Chandran and justice Partha Sarthy removed the stay and dismissed the writ petitions against the caste survey.