Bihar should hold caste-based census on its own: Tejashwi Yadav

Patna: Reiterating the demand for a caste-based census, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav on Thursday asked the Nitish Kumar Government in Bihar to conduct such an exercise “on its own” if the Centre refused to budge from its stand.

Yadav raised the demand, talking to reporters outside the assembly on the monsoon session's penultimate day after his adjournment motion moved on the floor of the House was turned down by Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha, who cited paucity of time.

“My demand is that since both Houses of the legislature have already passed unanimous resolutions on more than one occasion supporting a caste-based census, it was high time pressure was put on the Centre to see reason,” Yadav said.

The Central Government had recently informed Parliament it was mooting a caste-based census only for the SCs and STs, implying that the numerically powerful OBCs



and the traditionally influential upper castes would not be covered under the exercise.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, whose JD(U) is an ally of the ruling BJP at the Centre, has also expressed his disapproval of the stand taken by the Union government and asserted that caste-based census must be conducted “at least once”.

Yadav said he has “sought an appointment from the chief minister to present him with two suggestions. Either he should head a delegation of leaders from Bihar, which I offer to be a part of, and call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and reason out the issue”.

“However, if the CM expresses inability to take this course of action, I want to suggest that the State Government conduct a census of all  castes like Karnataka did some time back,” said the leader of the Opposition.