Leaders from JD(U), RJD, BJP, others to meet PM Modi today over caste census

Besides Bihar Chief Minister, other members of the delegation will be RJD’s Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, JD(U) leader Vijay Kumar Choudhary, who is also the minister for education and parliamentary affairs, former Chief Minister and President of HindustAwam Morcha (HAM) Jitan Ram Manjhi, Congress legislature party leader Ajeet Sharma and BJP leader and Bihar minister Janak Ram, CPI-ML legislature party leader Mahboob Alam, Akhtarul Imam of AIMIM, Mukesh Sahni of VIP, Suryakant Paswan of CPI and Ajay Kunar of CPM.

“Caste-based Census would be not just for Bihar, people in the whole country will benefit from this,” Janata Dal (United) supremo said, who arrived in the national capital on Sunday.

While speaking to reporters at the airport said, “We (a delegation comprising representatives of 10 different parties) will meet PM Narendra Modi at 11 am on Monday with our demand for a caste-based census.”

Mukesh Sahni President of Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) and minister in Bihar government told ANI that caste-based census should be done in the country specially in Bihar and there are many small castes that are away from mainstream of development, if we have information about them then we will able to make better policy for them.

“I am a minister in Bihar for Animal and Fisheries Department and we are counting a number of animals to know how many horses, elephants, camels and other animals are there in our state. If you keep information about animals then why not keep information about humans,” Sahni added.

Mukesh Sahni further said, “what caste of people belongs to, what is their economic condition, all this information should be kept with the central government and with the state government, then we will be able to make a better policy for them. Before independence, the British did caste-based census, so post-independent we should also hold caste-based Census.”

Ajeet Sharma Congress Legislative party leader in state Assembly said that in Bihar, all political parties have passed a resolution in the state legislative Assembly including BJP to conduct the caste-based census.

“I believe that by conducting caste census, social hatred will end. The purpose of the caste-based census is reservation. In all the government departments, whether it is the central government or the state government, all the people of each class should be given reservations according to the caste census,” he said.

CPI(M) leader in Bihar Assembly Ajay Kumar said, “Caste-based census is a question related to society. Through this, it will be known who does what work. Why central government trying to run away from the caste-based Census. Such resolutions have been passed twice in the assembly of Bihar. We demand that the caste census will clearly show who is being exploited and who is exploiting.”

On July 20, in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai had said: “The Government of India has decided as a matter of policy not to enumerate caste-wise populations other than SCs and STs in the census.”