Caste Census In India: After the approval of the Union Cabinet to conduct caste census, the opposition has suffered a major setback. A big issue has slipped out of its hands.
The entire opposition, including Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, RJD leader Tejaswi Yadav and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, had this strong issue to corner the BJP. Its effect was also seen in the Lok Sabha elections. BJP’s seats came down to 240 while the opposition’s seats reached 232. The opposition was also preparing to capitalize on this in the Bihar assembly elections.
- Central government bows down to the opposition
- Caste census got approval
- May get benefit in Bihar elections
Patna: The central government finally had to come on the back foot on the question of caste census. Earlier the central government had refused to conduct caste census. During the hearing on this issue in the Supreme Court, the Center had cited technical difficulties. The opposition was making it an issue since the time of the Lok Sabha elections. Rahul Gandhi, who has been the PM face of India Block, has been saying till now that if his government is formed, the first thing he will do is caste census. The law of reservation will be made in proportion to the share of the people in the census. Rahul has even been saying that along with caste census, he will also end the limit of reservation.
Caste census was an issue in Lok Sabha elections
During the Lok Sabha elections, the opposition had included caste census among the major issues. In Bihar, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav was the first to take the initiative of caste census. He had first met Nitish Kumar on this issue. Nitish was the head of the NDA government then. Nitish sent a government delegation to Delhi in this regard. Since the central government had already refused to conduct caste census citing technical problems, Nitish Kumar later conducted caste survey at his own expense while running the government with RJD. The state government also bore the huge expenditure of Rs 500 crore on this. On the basis of the survey, the Nitish government increased the limit of reservation to 75 percent. However, the Patna High Court put a stay on the increase in reservation. The opposition in Bihar wanted to make it an issue in the assembly elections. But, BJP has foiled the opposition’s plan.
The caste issue slipped out of Congress’ hands
In the first Lok Sabha elections, Rahul Gandhi tried to cash in on the caste census. He said that he will get the caste census done if the government is formed. On that basis, reservation will be determined afresh. In the states where assembly elections were held after the Lok Sabha elections, all the opposition parties including Congress made caste census an election issue. In Jharkhand, it has been announced that a caste survey will be conducted by next year if the opposition alliance forms the government. To ensure that the opposition does not take advantage of this issue further, the Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the proposal to conduct caste census.
It may have an impact on Bihar elections
Assembly elections are to be held in Bihar this year. All the parties are trying to beat each other with their own moves. Rahul Gandhi has termed the caste survey conducted in Bihar as fake. He has talked about getting the caste census done again. However, now the Center has taken its decision, so the opposition will hardly get any benefit from it now. The opposition can now only boast that the central government, which had earlier refused under its pressure, has now agreed to conduct the caste census.
The BJP will definitely try to tell that the caste census is its contribution. Earlier, Karnataka, Bihar and Telangana had conducted the caste census. So far, no benefit of this is visible on the ground in Bihar. Its report has not been implemented in Karnataka. Rahul Gandhi considers the caste census of Telangana to be perfect. He has been in favor of conducting similar caste census in every state. Now this issue of his, which the Congress leaders wanted to use as a ‘Brahmastra’ in the Bihar elections, is over.
About the author
Sudhendra Pratap Singh
Senior Digital Content Producer at Navbharat Times Digital. Started the journey in journalism with the local newspaper Agrabharat. From here the caravan grew and reached NBT.com via Kalpataru Express, Hindustan News Paper, News18.
Courtesy: Edited by Sudhendra Pratap Singh | Written by Omprakash Ashk, NBT, Hindi News