Patna: Much against the wishes of BJP, legislators of Bihar assembly on Thursday passed a resolution unanimously recommended caste based census in 2021.
The resolution moved by speaker Vijay Kumar Chaudhury said this is an appropriate time when the House should convey its sentiments to the concerned authorities at the Centre for caste based census in 2021".
For the second time in the current budget session, BJP members claimed they had been kept in the dark. On Tuesday, the House had passed a resolution against NRC and on Thursday, recommending caste based census.
Sachchidanad Rai, a senior BJP legislator claimed BJP members were not informed on the issue. It was not discussed in the NDA meeting either, he said. Two ministers from BJP quota, Prem Kumar and Vijay Kumar Sinha had also regretted on Tuesday about passage of the resolution against NRC and had claimed they were kept in the dark.
Demand for caste based census had been made by RJD President Lalu Prasad since 2015, when RJD was in alliance with the Janata Dal U.
Like on Tuesday, BJP with over 50 MLAs in the state, where it is sharing power with the JD(U), backed the resolution in favour of inclusion of caste in the upcoming population enumeration job. The all-party resolution in favour of caste-based census received the House nod for the second time in just over a year.
The Bihar Assembly had on February 18 last year passed a unanimous resolution for carrying out caste census. Such an exercise was last conducted in 1931. "... This is an appropriate time when the House should convey its sentiments to the authorities concerned for a caste-based census... The proposed census 2021 be conducted on caste basis," Chaudhury said.
He said CM Nitish Kumar had made a proposal for a resolution in support of caste-based census during the debate on adjournment motion on Tuesday on the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the National Population Register (NPR) in the assembly, which found support from all other political parties in the House.
Dy CM Sushil Kumar Modi has already said updating of the NPR will be carried out in the state from May 15-28. Prominent leaders of Bihar like Kumar, RJD president Lalu Prasad and Sushil Modi are on the same page on the issue of the caste-based census.
Making a strong pitch for inclusion of caste in the new population counting work, Prasad had in December last tweeted, "Billions would be splurged on the so-called NPR, NRC and the Indian Census of 2021.
Have learnt that NPR forms have numerous columns. Then, why is there a problem in adding one more column for caste?" Kumar has also been a strong votary of the caste-based census.
