Bihar: RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav Says PM Modi is Insulting CM Nitish Kumar

Patna: After taking an aggressive stand demanding a caste-based census exercise in 2021, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav, who is also the Leader of Opposition in the Bihar Assembly, on Friday accused Prime Minister Narendar Modi of insulting Chief Minister Nitish Kumar over the issue.This is probably the first time in the last four years that Tejashwi has expressed his open support to his main opponent Nitish Kumar. This has given rise to speculations about whether Tejashwi and Nitish will join hands in the future if the BJP-led Central government continues opposing a caste-based census.

Notably, in the past couple of weeks, Nitish Kumar has aired his differences with BJP on three issues—caste-based Census, the Pegasus spyware issue, and population control— creating a buzz in political circles in the state.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi is insulting Nitish Kumar. Neither making time to meet the chief minister on the issue of the caste-based census, nor replying to his letters, shows that the prime minister is ignoring him,” Tejashwi said. CM Nitish Kumar had recently said that he was yet to receive a response to his letter seeking an appointment on the issue of the caste-based census.

Tejashwi further added that if PM Modi failed to respond to Nitish Kumar’s letter and give him an appointment, RJD will not remain silent. “I have also written a letter to PM Modi and requested an appointment for the elected leaders from the state to discuss the contentious issue of caste-wise census in the state,” he said.

Nitish Kumar and leaders of JD-U have time and again expressed disappointment about PM Modi’s silence over the letter and the request for an appointment.“I had written a letter that was received by the PMO on April 4. But the reply is yet to come. I had also sought an appointment with the PM for a meeting with the delegation of political parties from Bihar,” Nitish Kumar said earlier this week.

The newly appointed JD-U National President Lalan Singh, who is considered to be close to Nitish Kumar, met Union Home Minister Amit Shah and demanded a caste-based census. Singh led a delegation of JD-U MPs and submitted a memorandum for a caste-based census to be conducted and raised the issue in the parliament as well. Singh has made it clear to the BJP that his party will not go back on its demand.

While addressing the media,Tejashwi, who also favours a caste-based Census, announced that RJD will stage a protest in Delhi with this demand. “Going by PM Modi's stand on the issue, we have no option but to stage a dharna at Jantar Mantar in Delhi,” he said.

Union Minister of State for Home, Nityanand Rai, had recently told the Lok Sabha that the government had decided that there would be no census of caste, other than the enumeration of Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) populations. Rai, a senior BJP leader from Bihar, who belongs to a powerful OBC (Other Backward Classes) community, has been propagating BJP’s stand, diluting the issue in a state known to be highly caste-ridden.

Soon after Rai’s statement in the Parliament, Tejashwi said that his party has been fighting for a caste-based census exercise for a long time and would continue to do so. In a series of tweets, the RJD leader said his party would take forward Lalu Prasad’s fight.

"We want a caste-based Census and will not move an inch from Laluji's stand on it. Demand for a caste-based census is a fight for the majority population belonging to backward, marginalised and poor sections of society," he said.

Tejashwi's move is being seen as a political strategy to strengthen his social support base among OBCs, Extremely Backward Castes (EBCs) and Dalits.

The RJD has repeatedly demanded that caste-based data from the Socio-Economic & Caste Census (SECC) conducted in 2011 be made public by the Centre. While the socio economic part of this survey was released by the Modi government, the caste part has been withheld. Earlier, the United Progressive Alliance government, too, had delayed release of this data.

Lalu Prasad, who is undergoing medical treatment in Delhi after being granted bail in the fodder scam case, has been consistently demanding a caste-based census. Since 2015, Prasad has also been demanding that the data from SECC 2011 be made public to "ensure the empowerment of all those lagging behind in development".

Nitish Kumar’s insistence on a caste-based census is widely seen as a response to RJD’s aggressive stand against the Centre's decision to not support it. Both Nitish Kumar’s JD-U and Lalu Prasad Yadav's RJD have been 'pro-Mandal' and the caste-based census is an old demand reiterated by both the parties. Earlier, Nitish Kumar had appealed to the BJP-led Central government to reconsider its decision of not conducting a caste-based census.

A senior leader of Nitish Kumar’s party said that if the Central government does not reconsider its decision, the chief minister will go ahead and conduct a caste-based census in Bihar.

Nitish Kumar, who belongs to an agrarian OBC caste (Kurmi) himself, said that a caste-based census exercise should be conducted at least once. He said that it would help to know the number of people belonging to different poor and marginalised castes in different regions. The last caste census was conducted in 1931, before India’s independence.

The CM recalled that the Bihar Legislative Assembly had passed a unanimous resolution for conducting a caste-based census in February 2019 and in February 2020 consecutively, and had sent it to the Centre. Notably, the BJP and JDU had supported the resolution calling for a caste-based Census in 2020. However, the BJP does not seem to be too keen to do it now.

In 2019, the CM had stressed on the need for a caste-based census saying that people had a right to know the strengths and weaknesses based on different parameters, including population. The data is expected to expose several myths surrounding the development of backward and marginalised people and help in the formulation of schemes for their socio-economic progress, he said.