Nitish Kumar supports Lalu, Paswan on caste Census

Patna- Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday lent his full support to the demand for holding caste-wise census in the country.

Supporting RJD chief Lalu Prasad and LJP’s Ram Vilas Paswan, he said : “I fully support the view for a caste-wise national census and in fact my party (JD-U) has stuck to this stand since 1990.”

“The caste-wise census will identify the numbers of backwards and extremely-backward people paving way for devising plan for their all-round growth,” he said before leaving for Madhubani in his second leg of ‘Vishwas Yatra’ to elicit people’s opinions on the performance of his government.

Nitish, however, was cautious when his commment was sought about yesterday’s argument between BJP leader Ananth Kumar and RJD supremo Lalu Prasad over the former’s ‘gaddar’ remark on Lalu.

Yesterday, the debate on whether or not the country’s population statistics should include caste details took a violent turn when Ananth Kumar and Lalu Prasad got into an altercation. Ananth threw extremely bold allegations at Lalu calling him a “traitor”. He also accused Lalu of selling the country by showing sympathy to illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. He said, “You are determined to sell the country, you are doing vote-bank politics.”

Several leaders from scheduled and backward castes, including Union Law Minister Veerapa Moily, have demanded enumerating the population on the basis of caste, saying that it is a reality in Indian society and having caste-based data would help plan various socio-economic schemes.

LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan has also sought for enumerating the population on the basis of caste, saying that it is a reality in Indian society and ignoring the issue won’t do as caste is a reality in Indian system.

“Even ticket distribution by political parties is done on the basis of caste,” Paswan said.

Pointing out that the last caste census was carried out in 1931 in India, Paswan said having data about the population belonging to various backward or Dalit castes would also help the government to properly launch various socio-economic programme for them.

Union Home minister P Chidambaram has opposed the caste-based census. The home ministry, which is opposed to the demand for the inclusion of caste figures, has been maintaining that it was fraught with “dangerous consequences”. In a note drafted for the Cabinet, it cited “operational difficulties” in carrying out such an exercise which, if executed, would overshadow its basic objective itself. There were, the home ministry note pointed out, 1,885 notified SCs and STs in India. But the number returned in the 2001 census was 18,478. There were, in addition, surnames and clan names, and classification and grouping under SC/ST itself was a formidable task. In the event of a caste-based census, hundreds of castes will be returned with people using clan names and gotra interchangeably.

- AGENCIES