Soren leads delegation to meeting with Shah
NEW DELHI: An all-party delegation from Jharkhand led by chief minister Hemant Soren met home minister Amit Shah on Sunday and demanded that a caste-based census be conducted in the country.
The visit came close on the heels of the Centre telling the Supreme Court that a caste census of backward classes is “administratively difficult and cumbersome” and excluding such information from the purview of Census is a “conscious policy decision.”the delegation led by Soren included the Congress’ Jharkhand unit president Rajesh Thakur, BJP state president and Rajya Sabha member Deepak Prakash, Congress’ legislature party leader Alamgir Alam, AJSU president and ex-deputy chief minister Sudesh Mahato, RJD leader Satyanand Bhoka and representatives of all other parties from the state.
“All of us met Home Minister Amit Shah and urged him to ensure that a caste-based census is conducted. We apprised him of our state’s sentiments in support of the caste census,” Soren told reporters after the meeting.
The Congress’ state president said the Union home minister gave the delegation a patient hearing and assured that he will “look into the matter”.
BJP’S Deepak Prakash evaded a direct reply to reporters question as to whether his party supports caste-census.
“The BJP was also part of this all-party delegation. We all know that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government is a well-wisher of the people belonging to backward classes,” he said. Soren handed over to Shah a letter addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding that a caste-based demographic survey be carried out during the proposed 2021 census. The letter was signed by all members of the delegation.