PATNA: Politics in Bihar went on boil on Friday following the Centre’s refusal to carry out a caste census, with the opposition accusing the BJP of being deceitful with the OBCs. RJD chief Lalu Prasad urged the people to boycott the OBC ministers and MPs of BJP, if they don’t come out in support of caste census. “Why does the BJP and the RSS hate backward castes so much? The caste census will benefit all sections and the reality of all will come out,” he tweeted.
The BJP was forced to come out defending the Centre’s decision not to enumerate the OBCs, saying it was an ‘impractical’ demand. BJP state chief Sanjay Jaiswal separated the party’s stand from the stand of ally JD-U on the caste census. “It is not the right to repeat the mistake of 2011. It is impractical demand. Around 4.28 lakh castes were found during the 2011 caste census through columns filled by the people.
A majority of people had not mentioned their castes. The Centre finds it impractical to create 4.28 lakh columns for it,” he asserted. In the socio-economic census in 2011, he said, the government has seen that it was completely impractical to conduct caste based census at present.
Every state is free to work on the caste census, he said. “But for the Centre now, it is not possible to conduct the enumeration of castes for all-except SC/ST, as part of census 2021.” But, BJP ally Nitish Kumar is at his wits end since Thursday. He had led all-party delegation to meet the PM on August 23. “The news came like a bolt from the blue for Nitish, who was hopeful of a positive outcome after the meeting,” a senior JD-U leader said, Understandably, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav sought statement from Nitish on the Centre’s refusal for caste census.