New Delhi: BJP MP and actor Kangana Ranaut has categorically rejected the demand for a caste census, a stance that has put her party on a sticky wicket at a time when the Opposition is turning on the heat on this issue.
The BJP has distanced itself from her remarks. “The home minister has said that if a need arises, we will do a caste based census. So Kangana’s assertion does not reflect the party’s stand,” said BJP national spokesperson Guru Prakash Paswan.
The party, which lost its parliamentary majority in the Lok Sabha elections, has remained equivocal on the caste census issue though its crucial alliance partners — Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) and Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party — have strongly pushed for it to be conducted. There is increasing pressure from the Opposition too. The BJP says it does not oppose it but is non-committal on the demand to include caste in the next census.
In an interview to news channel News24, Ranaut, when asked if a caste census should be held, said “not at all”.
Congress spokesperson Supriya Srinate said Ranaut’s comments indicated the BJP was against such a census. “BJP will not get a caste census conducted and is strictly against it. And these are not my words but that of the BJP’s elected representative Kangana Ranaut… We saw how a BJP MP has made the party’s stand clear on the issue.”
BJP में इतना सन्नाटा क्यों है भाई
• जातिगत जनगणना होनी चाहिए या बिलकुल नहीं
• जैसा कि आपकी सांसद कंगना रनौत जी कह रही हैं
अपना मत और मंशा साफ़ कीजिए
जातिगत जनगणना: हाँ या ना?
— Supriya Shrinate (@SupriyaShrinate) August 29, 2024
BJP जातिगत जनगणना के ख़िलाफ़ है और बिलकुल नहीं करायेगी
यह BJP सांसद कंगना रनौत जी ने साफ़ कर दिया है
सवाल है:
• क्या यह BJP का अधिकृत स्टैंड है?
• कब तक BJP दलितों, आदिवासियों, पिछड़ों का हक़ मारेगी?
आप मत कराइए, हम कराएँगे जातिगत जनगणना pic.twitter.com/n2C4GuFel0
— Supriya Shrinate (@SupriyaShrinate) August 28, 2024
The chairperson of the Congress’s social media and digital platforms said the actor’s views should be seen as the BJP’s “official stand”, particularly since she did not seem to be cowed down by the headquarters’ recent schooling of her over comments on the farmer’s issue.
“So far the BJP has been trying to avoid the issue and would criticise others but this episode has clearly shown the BJP does not want to conduct a caste-based census,” Srinate said. “We all know she has already been reprimanded by the party for her comments on the farmers’ agitation because Haryana elections are just round the corner. And then she made a comment on the caste census. Why shouldn’t her views be seen as the official stand of the BJP?”
She added that the BJP “had made its intent clear of doing away with reservation during the Lok Sabha elections”.
“It’s ok. The next Prime Minister of India will get it done (caste census),” the Congress leader said.
Earlier this week, Ranuat was reprimanded by the BJP for telling an interviewer that in the 2020-21 farmers’ agitation, “bodies were hanging and rapes were taking place” and that there was a “plan to create a Bangladesh-like situation in India”.
When her remarks to Dainik Bhaskar triggered a political storm, the BJP distanced itself, saying it was not in agreement with her views. In a communique issued Monday by its media department in Delhi, the BJP, which is in power in Haryana, said Ranaut’s comments were “not the opinion of the party”.
“Ranaut has been directed not to make any such statements in future,” the BJP added.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
Also read: Kangana’s ‘rape & dead bodies’ remarks on farmers’ agitation land BJP in soup in poll-bound Haryana