Political experts strongly believe that the BJP is against the caste census as it may hinder the saffron party’s goal of mobilizing Hindus. Academics strongly oppose caste politics and call it a tool to divide the society on the basis of caste and sects in order to gain political mileage.
On February 23, the demand for caste census got a boost on February 23 when the opposition Samajwadi Party raised the long-pending issue in the state assembly, demanding a clear answer from the Yogi Adityanath-led government.
“If caste census can be done in Bihar, why not us? Our party had promised that after coming to power, we will complete the caste census within three months. Akhilesh Yadav during the budget session
Responding to Yadav, state agriculture minister Surya Pratap Shahi had said, “The subject of census was listed at number 69 of the Union List of the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution of India. The Central Government has made the Census Act, 1948 and the Census Rules, 1990. The subject of conducting the census was the purview of the central government, not the state.
Shahi said, ‘UP is far ahead of Bihar. We will not (a) exclude Bihar from UP. We will not return to the same path.
His prompt reply, however, failed to convince the opposition and SP leaders disrupted the session by staging a sit-in on the floor, which eventually led to the adjournment of the ‘Question Hour’ for more than half an hour.
The question is why SP is raising this issue now and that too when the party was in power in UP for many years and never thought of conducting caste census. “It is an attempt to score political points ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections,” political pundits quickly retorted.
Apart from being the most populous state, UP is home to over 75 Other Backward Castes (OBCs) and 66 Scheduled Castes (SCs) and other sub-castes. Only a few, including the Yadavs, Kurmis, Lodhs, Rajbhars, Mauryas and Kushwahas in the OBCs, and Jatavs, Pasis, Valmikis and Koris in the SCs, have been able to garner the lion’s share of political power, economic resources and visibility in the government. Jobs.
Not only this, OBCs and SCs together constitute about 60 to 70 per cent of the state’s entire population, said Shashikant Pandey, head of the political science department at Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University in Lucknow, explaining the caste matrix.
The professor said the tabulation of SC-ST population was done at the time of the census, but the caste-wise enumeration was last done in 1931 and the same data was being used to refer to the date.
SP has been the most vocal about the demand for caste census in UP. “The idea behind conducting the caste census is to maintain transparency. Unless you have data, statistics and basis for allocation of resources, policy making will be ineffective. Things have changed drastically in the North East (NE) after getting a separate share in the Union Budget, when the region was recognized as a separate category that needs a boost. In the same way, there is a need to do caste census, which is an old demand and suddenly there is nothing,” said Abhishek Mishra, a senior SP leader speaking about the demand for caste census.
The SP spokesperson said, “To achieve the objective of social justice, caste-wise tabulation of the census is essential because without knowing the numbers of different castes, it is not possible for governments to properly plan and implement welfare policies for them.” Rajendra Chowdhary.
Other small regional outfits, including Anupriya Patel’s Apna Dal, Om Prakash Rajbhar’s Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) and Sanjay Nishad’s Nishad Party, Keshav Dev Maurya’s Mahan Dal and Babu Singh Kushwaha’s Jan Adhikar Party – led by OBC leaders – vocally support the demand for a caste-based census.
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) are perhaps the only important political players who are yet to take a clear stand on the issue.
Against the backdrop of growing demand for a caste-based census, however, political scientists strongly believe that it is nothing more than seeking political mileage and dividing the society on the basis of caste.
“It is really very unfortunate when we hear about such demands. Why can’t political parties think about unity and togetherness instead of dividing people on the basis of caste? Now is the time that political parties should change their ideology. should change and instead of dividing people to take political advantage, they should think of uniting people.
Dwivedi said that it was observed that caste discrimination was reducing at the social level as people could be seen mingling with each other but political parties strengthened this issue from time to time for political gains.
He further said that if caste census is conducted, the government can be greatly benefited in planning and allocation of welfare funds, thus bringing OBCs and SCs into the mainstream of development. But, at the same time, it can also increase caste tension in the society, he said.
Dwivedi said the BJP’s parent organisation, the RSS, has always stressed on the unity of Hindus, but any caste division would hinder its goal. This is the reason why the ruling party is confused about the caste census which is already underway in the neighboring state of Bihar.
read all latest politics news Here