बिहार में जातीय जनगणना पर रोक: अब जातियों को इकट्ठा करने और बाँटने की राजनीति, बिहार सबसे आगे

Be it Indian politics or elections, castes have great importance in them. When political parties or leaders say that we are uniting castes, in reality they are dividing them. This process of dividing religion, caste and communities has been going on since the British era. When the need arises, they are clubbed together and all energy is spent in redistributing them as per the need.

The latest development is from Bihar. Nitish Kumar’s government is getting caste census done there. This work was going to be completed on May 15. On Thursday i.e. May 4, the High Court has banned it. Now at least till the next hearing, the government cannot make the census data public. The High Court says that the work of census is of the Central Government. The state can get this done only if a law to this effect is passed in the assembly.

Actually, castes have been of utmost importance in Bihar since the beginning. There has been a demand for a long time that according to the share of the caste in the population, it should be given reservation in the same amount. Recently, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had also raised this demand and had said – Whatever the share, that much participation should be fixed.

Overall, the whole matter in Bihar is going on regarding Other Backward Classes (OBC) and Economic Backward Classes (EBC). As per the last census the share of OBCs and EBCs in Bihar was 55%. Later it was claimed in many surveys that after 2011 this percentage has increased significantly. JDU and RJD claim that the share of OBCs and EBCs in Bihar has crossed 70 percent. In 2024, RJD and JDU want to capitalize on this.

The backward classes say that when reservation is being given to the Scheduled Castes-Tribes (SC-ST) on the basis of population, then why is the same basis not considered for the backward classes as well? The Nitish government wants to do “justice” with the backward classes. This class is also the biggest vote bank of RJD and JDU. Government or should say that JDU and RJD are hurt due to High Court’s ban. However, the figures must have come to the government by now. She cannot make these public because of the embargo.

This is the biggest hurdle. Unless the figures are made public, it will be difficult to convert them into votes. If OBCs have really become seventy percent then it will be told to them and also that now they will be judged only on the basis of this number, only then there will be an effect! Meanwhile, caste census has also started in Odisha. The government there is also seeing a sense of “justice” towards the poor and the backward.