Patna, July 21: Political parties have locked horns over the caste census report ahead of Assembly polls, even as the RJD chief tries to inject a "Mandal Vs Kamandal" factor.
The BJP and Jitan Ram Manjhi's Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) favour release of the caste census report after rectifying the anomalies, but RJD chief Lalu Prasad today accused the BJP of not releasing the caste census because of a well-designed motive while reiterating his call for "Mandal vs Kamandal (religious conservatism)".
The post-Mandal era saw the rise of backward class political leaders like Lalu, Nitish and Mulayam and their brand of politics. It's rise came to a halt on the arrival of Kamandal brand of politics, triggered by L.K. Advani's rath yatra in the 1990s.
Lalu, who led thousands of party workers to Raj Bhavan last week against withholding of the caste-based census data by the Centre, today advised party workers at 10 Circular Road how to take the issue to the hinterland.
He asked them to reach interior areas on tum-tums (horse-drawn carriages, also called tongas) fitted with bhopus (loudspeakers) to expose the BJP for delay in releasing the caste census report.
Accompanied by senior leaders like RJD national vice-president Raghuvansh Prasad Singh and Jagadanand Singh, Lalu told workers the socio-economic data the Centre released mentioned that every third person in rural area was landless, the monthly income of 75 per cent of families was under Rs 10,000 and 51 per cent of families in rural areas were labourers.
He said the nation wants to know who are these backward people and to which caste they belong.
The RJD chief also said: "The last caste census was conducted in 1931. The population of Scheduled Castes, extremely backward classes (EBCs) and other backward classes (OBCs) has gone up and so they should get government jobs and resources according to their population."
The BJP today once again claimed the Centre was committed to releasing the caste data under Socio-Economic Caste Census, after rectifying some errors. According to senior leader Sushil Kumar Modi, there are 1.46 crore errors in the report vis-à-vis India and 1.75 lakh errors vis-a-vis Bihar. Modi said: "Both Lalu and Nitish know about the fact, but are unnecessarily using the issue to play caste politics." The BJP leader said the Mandal commission report mentioned 3,473 castes in the country, but the recent census report mentions around 36 lakh. "A person belonging to a particular caste has, in some cases, mentioned surname or even gotra as caste and these errors have to be rectified."
An expert group has been formed under NITI Ayog vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya for verification and rectification of errors after which the report would be published.
Modi received support on the issue today from HAM (Secular) with party leader Nitish Mishra, too, favouring release of the caste census report after rectification of errors. Mishra said: "In Bihar's, caste-related data from East Champaran, Araria, Purnea and Muzaffarpur is incomplete. How can the government release data before completion?"
Mishra, who was rural minister in the Nitish and Manjhi cabinets from 2011 to 2014, said if Lalu and Nitish are really bothered about improving the economic condition of the Scheduled Castes and other backward classes, the socio-economic data is there and amply mentions the economic and social condition of people.
