Nine social organisations will carry out a campaign in Bihar to get the caste census done in a most “rational way” with population-wise representation and participation at all levels.
At a conference organised in Patna by the Bihar chapter of the All-India Pasmanda Muslim Mahaz on Thursday to commemorate freedom fighter and social reformer Abdul Qayum Ansari and Param Vir Chakra awardee martyr Abdul Hameed, social organisations Rashtriya Ati Pichda Sangharsh Morcha, Samajik Nyaya Andolan-Bihar, Bahujan Bhagidari Andolan–Bihar, Bahujan Chaupal, Jankranti Morcha, Safaikarmi Jankranti Parishad, Ek Kaum Foundation, Pichda Pasmanda Manch-Bihar and many OBC and Dalit intellectuals gave a clarion call for kicking off the campaign.
Renowned public intellectual Prof. Kancha Ilaiah said that the government at the Centre was rapidly privatising State enterprises and handing them over to private corporates, and that was a cause for serious concern. “Reservation initiatives in the private sector is required and it is imperative to have a national reservation policy for the deprived Pasmanda sections of all religions in the private sector”.
Ali Anwar Ansari, national president of All-India Pasmanda Muslim Mahaz (AIPMM) and former Rajya Sabha MP, said that all organisations present at the conference were opposed to communalism. “No political parties or leaders should have the illusion that the deprived Pasmanda community will support them blindly.” He cautioned that “those who ignore Pasmanda community would surely be rejected by it”.
Prof. Rambali Chandrawanshi, MLC, said some well-to-do castes had been included in the extremely backward class and that had deprived the rights of the genuine members of this section.
E. Harikeshwar Ram, a Dalit thinker, said that the battlefield for RSS was communalism and it was difficult for bahujans to win against them on this turf. “The real pitch for bahujans is social justice and on this turf it is difficult for anyone to defeat the bahujans.”
Tapendra Kushwaha (retd. IAS, U.P.), Prof. Tanvir Aeijaz of Delhi University and leader of ‘Samajik Nyay Manch, Bihar’ Rinku Yadav were among the thinkers and intellectuals who participated in the conference.
