CM Nitish again pitches for caste-based census
PATNA: Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold 10% reservation to economically weaker sections (EWS), but demanded the removal of the 50% cap on reservations and made a fresh pitch for a countrywide caste census.
Kumar, one of the original leaders of the Mandal movement in the 1990s that led to reservation for other backward classes (OBCs), has frequently raised the demand for a caste census in the past -- an issue that also led to a rift with his erstwhile ally, the Bharatiya Janata Party.
“This is right, but it is necessary that the caste-based census is done properly once. We were always in support of the quota. But it is high time that the limit of 50% is raised. The cap is depriving OBCs and EBCs (economically
backward classes) of opportunities in proportion to their population,” he said on the sidelines of a function in state capital Patna. He also reiterated the need for a fresh estimate of the population of various social groups and recalled having taken it up with Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year.
On Monday, the apex court affirmed the validity of the central law providing 10% reservation benefits to EWS. Justices Dinesh Maheshwari, Bela M Trivedi and JB Pardiwala declared the law to be valid and not violating either the basic structure of the Constitution or the equality code. Former CJI Uday Umesh Lalit and justice S Ravindra Bhat, comprising the minority on the bench, held the EWS quota law to be discriminatory and exclusionary since it did not include people from the scheduled castes and tribes.
On Tuesday, Kumar said that caste assessment was necessary so that everything could be done according to the population. “We were told that states could hold such headcounts. We have undertaken that exercise. But this needs to be done on the national level as well,” he said.
The BJP reacted strongly to the CM’s demand. “The CM announced caste counting in Bihar but after four months, this exercise seems to be a fiasco. If he is really concerned about conducting it in an extensive and comprehensive manner, he should count sub-castes among every caste groups,” said BJP leader Nikhil Anand.