Caste census chorus grows: Nitish Kumar to meet PM on August 23

JD(U), after RPI(A) and Apna Dal, is third NDA ally to back caste census, BJP wary

Amid the chorus for caste census growing months before polls in Uttar Pradesh and six others next year, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will be leading an all-party delegation of leaders from the state to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 23 to press for it.

Not only an array of Opposition parties including SP, BSP RJD, AAP LJD, NCP have backed the move, but even at least three NDA allies - JD(U) led by Kumar, RPI(A) led by Ramdas Athawale, and Apna Dal led by Anupriya Patel have pitched for it, even as the central government has so far been ruling it out even on the the floor of the Parliament. BJP is wary of the move.

The clamour around the issue is all set to grow in the run up to state polls next year.

The Bihar delegation which will also include RJD chief Lalu Prasad's son and the leader of Opposition in the Assembly Tejashwi Yadav, will try to convince the Prime Minister to agree to a caste-based census. On August 2, a group of JD(U) MPs had also met Home Minister Amit Shah to press for it.

Read | Govt to only count SCs, STs under 1950 orders in Census

Kumar thanked the Prime Minister for giving the delegation time on coming Monday. While Kumar and other party leaders, backing such a census are arguing that this will benefit all sections of the society and facilitate more effective governance, the possibility of aggressive revival of OBC politics is perhaps weighing on the mind of the successive governments, which have eschewed from the move on the one pretext or another.

The last caste census was carried out in 1931. With just eight months left for UP Assembly polls, the issue is gaining traction there. Samajwadi Party has argued that caste census was necessary for providing justice to the backwards and the Dalits. In Bihar also, the leaders from the Mahagathbandhan of five parties led by RJD had been building pressure on the Chief Minister on the issue.

BJP ally Apna Dal not only demanded caste based census but also pitched for creation of a separate ministry for the welfare of OBCs.

Centre which had recently got a constitutional amendment bill passed by Parliament to restore the powers of the states to make their own OBC lists to nullify the impact of the Supreme Court's May 5 order that held that the 102nd Constitution amendment took away the states' power to notify SEBCs for the grant of quota in jobs and admissions, is however, treading cautiously on the caste census issue.

On July 20, Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai in a written reply in Lok Sabha had said, "the government of India has decided as a matter of policy not to enumerate caste wise population other than SCs and STs in census" while noting that the Maharashtra and Odisha governments have requested the Centre to collect caste details in the forthcoming census.

This only led to renewed demands from parties led by OBC leaders to seek the same for their community. OBCs are numerically the most dominant caste group both in UP and Bihar and in many other states as well. Bihar Assembly had in 2019 and 2020 passed unanimous resolutions in support of a caste-based census.

With OBC politics in full swing in UP, not only the OBC census but also the issue of reservation distribution among most backward castes (MBCs) is gaining ground. The Opposition is raising questions over the non implementation of the 300-pages report social justice committee that had evaluated socioeconomic and educational backwardness of different classes/castes among the OBCs.

In Maharashtra, NCP chief Sharad Pawar this week urged the central government to bring a law to do away with the Supreme Court-mandated 50 per cent cap on quota and allow states to exceed the existing limit. A group of MPs from Naveen Patnaik-led BJD had met Shah on August 11 to make the same demand. BJD in Odisha last week declared fielding candidates from OBC for 27 per cent of seats in the upcoming three-tier panchayat elections in the state.