Patna: Questions are being raised by Bihar politicians, including an MP from Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United), about the authenticity of the caste survey’s findings that were released on Gandhi Jayanti.
One of the disgruntled voices, Rashtriya Lok Janata Dal (RLJD) chief Upendra Kushwaha has announced that his party would undertake a protest march on 14 October demanding an authentic caste survey.
In the ruling JD(U), Sitamarhi MP Sunil Kumar Pintu held a meeting of Vaishyas and Telis Sunday, stressing that the survey has undermined the number of the two castes. “If the numbers are not corrected, I will do my own survey in Bihar and bring out my own numbers and ask for a correction,” Pintu told ThePrint.
According to Pintu, the survey showed the Vaishya population was clubbed with 10 sub-castes associated with the Vaishya community like Kanu, Chaurasia, Teli and Halwai. The Bihar caste survey puts the Vaishya population at 2.7 percent.
The actual number would have been 9.56 percent of Bihar population, he added.
JD(U) insiders claimed that Pintu is now raking the issue because he wants to return to the BJP. “If Pintu is unsatisfied with the numbers, he should ask his original party to get a nationwide caste census done,” JD(U) spokesperson Neeraj Kumar told ThePrint.
But, Pintu is not the only one complaining. Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) chief Mukesh Sahani put up a full page advertisement claiming that the actual figure of Mallahs would be above 9.5 percent if the 19 sub-castes were added up.
“The government has treated Yadavs as a single caste. Similarly, it treated Kurmis as one block but in case of other castes, it treated them as different castes. An example is Turha, an off-hoot of the fishermen community. Their profession was to make nets for the Mallahs,” VIP spokesperson Dev Jyoti told ThePrint.
The Mallahs are pegged at 2.6 percent of Bihar’s population, but Sahani, who is not allied either with the NDA or the INDIA, puts the figure at 9.5 percent and asks all these castes to unite if they want to capture power.
A senior government official, however, said that the survey was done methodically. “The whole confusion has been created because in 1931, Bihar, Odisha and Jharkhand were taken as one section. There are castes which have substantial population in Odisha and some have more population in Jharkhand,”the official said.
The Extremely Backward Classes form 36.01 percent of Bihar’s population, Other Backward Classes 27.12 percent, SCs 19.65 Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes 1.68 percent, according to the caste survey. The general category accounts 15.52 percent.
Calling the survey findings “fake”, RLJD chief Upendra Kushwaha said he had received hundreds of complaints that no government employee met them for the survey.
“Even nobody visited me. If a government employee does not talk to a person, how can it be determined how much land I have, or how much money is there in my account?” Kushwaha said, adding that his party would undertake a protest march on 14 October demanding an authentic caste survey.
He also alleged that Kushwaha numbers have been diluted as castes like Dangi have been identified as a separate entity. The government’s survey in 2015 on Chandravanshis (EBC ) showed more numbers than what has been given in the caste survey, he claimed.
Similarly, Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) chief Jitan Ram Manjhi, who comes from the Musahar community, claimed that surveyors did not meet him for the exercise.
Former Bihar deputy chief minister and BJP Rajya Sabha MP Sushil Kumar Modi gave the example of Nonias. An Extremely Backward Class (EBC) community, the Nonia population is pegged at 1.9 percent while the other subgroups such as Bind and Beldar are put up as a different caste, he said, adding that the combined population of EBCs will be 3.2 percent.
“There has been a deliberate attempt by the government to break down major castes into sub castes,” Modi said.
(Edited by Tony Rai)