Jaipur:

The Rajasthan government on Saturday issued an order to conduct a caste survey in the state.

The order came just days after Bihar released the findings of its caste survey and ahead of the assembly polls in Rajasthan due later this year.

Rajasthan, ruled by the Congress, will be the second state in the country to conduct such a population count.

The order was issued by the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment after the state cabinet’s nod.

According to the order, the Rajasthan government will conduct the survey with its own resources for collecting information and figures related to social, economic and educational level of all its citizens.

The Department of Planning (Economic and Statistics) has been made the nodal department for the work.

However, the order does not provide a time frame for the conduct of the population count.

Earlier in the day, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot told reporters that an order would be issued in this regard.

On October 2, the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar released the findings of its much-awaited caste survey, which revealed that Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs) constituted a whopping 63 per cent of the state’s total population.

A nationwide caste census is a key agenda of the opposition INDIA bloc, which believes it will help the alliance in the forthcoming elections in the Hindi heartland where caste politics plays a major part.

The Congress is a part of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc as well as the ruling coalition in Bihar.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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Patna:

Two days after the first instalment of data from the Bihar caste survey was released, the BJP kept up its insistence that there were errors, with party MP Ravi Shankar Prasad claiming that no one met him or his family to collect their information despite him being a resident of Patna.

The state public relations department countered, saying his and his family’s data was collected as per norms. This prompted Mr Prasad to post that the form states that the head of the family’s signature is a must, and his wasn’t taken. 

The BJP leader’s comments invited a strong reaction from Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, who said all those who have a problem with the survey data should ask the Prime Minister to get it conducted for the entire country. He also claimed that the BJP was trying to have its cake and eat it too, by both welcoming and criticising the survey 

Addressing a press conference on Wednesday, Mr Prasad said that while his party had supported the caste survey in Bihar, no enumerator had met him or his family to gather their information despite him being the Lok Sabha MP from Patna Sahib. He said someone had asked a person outside their house for the details and alleged that similar complaints had been received from many parts of the state.

He also repeated Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s charge that the ruling coalition in Bihar, which consists of the Janata Dal (United), Rashtriya Janata Dal, Congress and three Left parties, had got the survey done to create a divide in the country. He also demanded that the data be made public to ensure transparency. 

The state public relations department issued a rebuttal and said that the information from the MP was collected as per the laid-down norms and that the data could not be released as that would lead to privacy issues.

Escalation

Later in the day, Mr Prasad posted on X, formerly Twitter, that the signature of the house owner is a must as per the caste survey form, and his was not taken. He alleged that lakhs of people have similar concerns.

“How much importance should be given to the response of the Public Relations Department? My direct question is that, according to the caste survey form, the signature of the house owner is necessary but my signature has not been taken nor have I been contacted even though I am the head of the family. Lakhs of people in Bihar have similar concerns that they were not contacted by the surveyors and their signatures were not taken. Misrepresentation should stop,” Mr Prasad posted in Hindi.

Asked about Mr Prasad’s comments, Tejashwi Yadav, pointed out that all parties in Bihar, including the BJP, had supported the caste survey. He also slammed the party for both welcoming the survey and criticising it.

“The caste survey has been done and now some people are raising objections. They are welcoming the survey and objecting at the same time. If they have so many objections, why don’t they ask PM Modi to get the Centre to do it? How long have we been making that demand? If they don’t trust our survey, they should ask Modiji to get it done in the whole country, and, if not, at least in Bihar,” Mr Yadav said in Hindi.

“All they have to do is add a column. Forget the caste census, they have not been able to conduct the normal Census since 2021. These people raise objections when someone gets the work done and praise the people who don’t,” the RJD leader mocked.

The data from the Bihar caste survey revealed that nearly 63.1% of the state’s 13.1 crore population belongs to a backward class and roughly 85% are members of a backward or extremely backward class, or a Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe.

The general category makes up just 15.5 per cent of the population. Among the Other Backward Classes, the biggest group is the Yadav community, which accounts for 14.27% of all OBCs.

New Delhi:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday accused the opposition of “trying to divide the country in the name of caste”, in a sharp comment that came hours after the Bihar government released details of its controversial state-wide caste-based survey. The Prime Minister did not refer to the survey or any specific party but, in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh, he lashed out at the opposition for having failed to secure development while in power and attacked them for “playing with the feelings of the poor”.

“They played with emotions of the poor back then… and even today they are playing the same game. Earlier they divided the country in the name of caste… and today they are committing the same sin. Earlier they were guilty of corruption… and today they are even more corrupt,” he said in Gwalior.

The Prime Minister also called any attempt at “division on caste lines” a “sin”.

The PM’s comments were seen by many as a two-for-one swipe at the Bihar’s ruling Janata Dal (United), an ex-BJP ally, and the Congress, its primary opposition in Madhya Pradesh, and which has vowed to conduct a similar caste-based survey if it returns to power after elections later this year.

On Saturday Mr Gandhi – who has been vocal about the need for a caste census – said, “After coming to power, first thing we will do is to go for caste-based census to know exact number of OBCs…”

Responding to the Bihar government report today, Rahul Gandhi said on X, “… the Congress reiterates its demand that the union government conduct a national caste census at the earliest.”

“The (Congress-led) UPA government had, in fact, completed this census but its results were not published by the Modi government. Such a census is essential for providing a firmer foundation for social empowerment programmes and for deepening social justice,” Mr Gandhi’s party said today.

Pressure on the BJP to conduct a national caste census will increase after today, following the Bihar government report that said around 63 per cent of the state’s population hail from backward classes, and over 20 per cent are from Scheduled Castes or Tribes. The ‘general population’ – which includes so-called upper classes that dominated Bihar politics till the Mandal report – is about 15.5 per cent.

The report – released months before a general election in a state that has 40 parliamentary seats, 39 of which were won by the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance in the 2019 election – will ramp up tension as states push for similar exercises and the opposition demands the centre hold a nation-wide count.

READ |Bihar Caste Survey: 27% Backward Classes, 36% Extremely Backward Classes

It also suggests the opposition is likely to make this a poll issue before the 2024 election, something underlined at the INDIA opposition bloc meeting in Mumbai early last month, although the weight of that demand was affected by Bengal’s ruling Trinamool refusing to support the call.

READ | Opposition Bloc INDIA Pushes For Caste Census In First Tactical Meeting

However, state and national BJP leaders haven’t always been on the same page on this topic, with the former unable, or unwilling, to fully support or resist the move, unlike the latter. On this occasion too, the party’s state unit boss Samrat Choudhary, telling NDTV the party will first “study methodology”.

Ex-Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, once Nitish Kumar’s right-hand man, said it was the BJP-JDU Bihar government – before Nitish Kumar quit the alliance – that resolved to hold a caste survey.

#WATCH | On the caste-based survey, BJP MP Sushil Kumar Modi says, “When BJP was a part of the Bihar government, that government only took the decision to do a caste-based survey in Bihar. Today the Bihar government has made the data public. BJP is analysing the data. We will… pic.twitter.com/PVSLnLrPb6

— ANI (@ANI) October 2, 2023

Nitish Kumar, his deputy Tejashwi Yadav and RJD boss Lalu Prasad Yadav hailed the release of the caste-based survey report as a “watershed” moment. The Chief Minister also said he will call a meeting of all parties in the Assembly – including the Prime Minister’s BJP – to discuss the next step.

READ | Bihar Caste Survey Results Out, Nitish Kumar Shares The Plan Ahead

The last time a caste-based headcount was conducted was in 1931.

In 2011 the Congress-led UPA central government conducted a socio-economic caste census and, five years later, that data was published. However, data relating to castes was not, and has not since.

Bihar is the first state to have completed and published the results of such an exercise.

Karnataka conducted a caste-based survey in 2014 but did not make data public. Telangana announced one for 2021 but it was never carried out. Odisha, this year, said it too would hold a caste-based survey.