Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said on Wednesday that he had sought an appointment with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss the caste-based census in the state, but had not any response till now. The Union government’s decision to hold caste-based census only for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes had triggered protests in Bihar.
"My letter to the PM has been dispatched. Once he gives an appointment we will take the matter forward", Kumar said while talking to media in Patna. It may be noted that a delegation of the JD(U) MPs had been earlier denied permission to meet the prime minister and asked to meet Home Minister Amit Shah, instead.
The chief minister said that in the event of the Centre not agreeing to the request for covering all castes in the census, his government will "keep the option open" of conducting a state-specific exercise.
Last week, leader of the opposition in Bihar Tejashwi Yadav had met Nitish with the suggestion that since unanimity prevailed among all political parties in Bihar over the issue of caste-based census, Kumar consider meeting the PM heading an all-party delegation.
Kumar rejected claims that a caste-based census will create tension in the society. "No tension will be created in the society. There will be happiness... People from every strata will benefit from schemes," he said.
The state BJP had raised concern over the caste census with party’s state chief Sanjay Jaiswal saying that it might have an adverse impact on social amity.
Kumar, however, pointed out that none of the BJP MLAs had raised any objection when the state Assembly passed resolutions demanding caste census in the state. The chief minister holds the view that a caste census will help better formulation and implementation of schemes aimed at targeted welfare of different social groups.
The last time a caste-based headcount was taken up in the country was in 1931. Every census since Independence has only counted SCs and STs.
Kumar, who heads the JD(U), an alliance partner of the BJP, had raised many an eyebrow in the political circles earlier this week after he demanded a probe into the Pegasus spyware scandal which has put the Narendra Modi government in a spot with the opposition insisting on a discussion in Parliament.
