The caste survey in Bihar, which was initiated by the Nitish Kumar government, has posed a dilemma to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The process of conducting the three-phase caste survey in the State began on January 7, 2023. Ahead of the meeting of the Opposition alliance in Mumbai recently, Mr. Kumar said that the caste survey has been completed and the results will be published soon.
The State BJP had initially supported the Bihar government’s decision to conduct the survey “on its own.” The Bihar legislature passed resolutions on February 18, 2019 and February 27, 2020 in favour of a caste census. An all-party delegation, including BJP representatives, met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 23, 2021 in New Delhi pressing for a nationwide caste census.
However, in July 2023, Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai said in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha that the Government of India had decided as a matter of policy not to enumerate a caste-wise population except for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
On August 1, the Bihar government secured relief when the Patna High Court dismissed all the petitions filed against the government’s decision to conduct the caste survey. The High Court allowed the State government to complete the exercise saying that the survey had been “initiated with due competence.” On August 21, while hearing petitions against the Patna High Court order, the Supreme Court asked Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta to file his response. Mr. Mehta told the Court that the State’s survey has some “ramifications” that necessitated an intervention by the Union government in the matter.
On August 28, the Union government filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court saying “no other body is empowered to conduct the exercise of either census or any action akin to census.” However, within hours, it filed a revised affidavit withdrawing this statement. The new affidavit said that the census is a statutory process and is governed by the Census Act, 1948. The affidavit read, “The Act empowers only the Central government to conduct the census under Section 3 of the Census Act, 1948.”
This put the BJP leaders in Bihar in a spot.
Following the developments in court, senior BJP leader and former Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha said that while the party had indeed supported the caste survey in Bihar at first, the intention of the Bihar government was “only to create a social divide” by conducting the caste census. Another BJP leader said that the exercise would “revive the ‘Mandal versus Kamandal (backward versus forward)‘ politics in the State again.” However, on August 28, BJP Rajya Sabha member Sushil Kumar Modi said, “In the affidavit, the Centre clarified that there was no confrontation between the Centre and the State government on the constitutional point of view. Stating the constitutional position in the apex court, the Centre clarified that the State was free to conduct the social and economic census.”
Leaders of the Rashtriya Janata Dal, Janata Dal (United) and Congress, which form the the Grand Alliance in Bihar, have seized the opportunity to accuse the BJP of “conspiring” against the caste survey through the “backdoor”, the court. RJD Rajya Sabha MP Manoj Jha alleged in Patna on August 27 that “failing in its mission to stop the survey process, the PMO, later, itself jumped into the matter through the solicitor-general Tushar Mehta.” JD(U) leader and party spokesperson Neeraj Kumar said that the way the Union government is “opposing the caste survey in the Supreme Court reflects the BJP’s desperation to keep the actual status of the Scheduled Castes, Backward Classes, and other deprived sections of the society under wraps”. Congress leaders, too, slammed the BJP for the “glaring contradiction in its words and deeds over the issue.”
As the Supreme Court refused to put a stay on the Patna High Court order allowing the caste survey in Bihar, Mr. Kumar said that his government’s decision has been vindicated while the BJP’s plan to make the issue a poll plank has fallen flat. The Grand Alliance will likely capitalise on the survey before the parliamentary elections. But State BJP leaders have been caught on the back foot this time as they first supported the survey and have now been compelled to oppose saying it would “foment social tension.”
