Good morning, Big Story The Bihar government has released the results of its survey of castes in the state, which shows that the Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) account for over 63% of the population. 🔴 Less than nine months to the general elections, the survey comes amid an increasing chorus of caste as a factor of political empowerment and representation. From EBC consolidation to Muslim-Yadav politics, here are the key takeaways. 🔴 The survey also puts the focus back on Nitish Kumar and is likely to help strengthen his position as a champion of the EBCs, non-Yadav OBCs, and Mahadalits — key vote banks ahead of the Lok Sabha election. 🔴 The findings, which put the general category population at 15.52%, could once again reopen the debate on the 1992 Supreme Court judgement, which fixed a 50% ceiling for reservation. 🔴 Meanwhile, a challenge to the Bihar government's decision to conduct the exercise is still pending in the SC on the grounds that it violates the court’s privacy judgment and is actually a census in the garb of a survey. Only in Express In his weekly column, C Raja Mohan writes on the India-Canada diplomatic ties: “In dressing up his domestic political calculus on cultivating Khalistani extremists in the rhetoric about freedom of speech and the rule of law, Trudeau was simply falling back on the time-tested liberal Canadian moralpolitik. The costs of that strategy for Canada’s relations with India are now at hand.” From the Front Page Six persons, including five of a family, were killed over an almost decade-old land dispute that flared up Monday morning at a village in Uttar Pradesh. Police said that 14 people have been detained so far. Heavy police deployment has been made in the village considering that the dispute involves two castes. Failing to protect women, Dalits and backward classes from atrocities; fostering an anti-development environment; running a “kursi-bachao sarkar” — these are just some of the strong allegations levied by Prime Minister Narendra Modi against the Congress during his public rallies in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh yesterday, ahead of the upcoming Assembly polls. Must Read Earlier this week, 14-year-old Lakhan Devipujak was found by a fisherman, clinging to the remains of a wooden plank ten nautical miles off the coast of Surat’s Dumas shore. Turns out he was swept away while trying to save his younger brother from drowning at the beach more than a day earlier. Read about this miraculous rescue. Amid the ongoing debate over the switch to the Old Pension Scheme (OPS), states are learnt to have flagged concerns over a high number of government employees who were regularised into government service mid-career, resulting in a lower pension payout due to less amount of contributions, compared with full-service government employees. Here’s what some states have to say. And Finally. Liyakat Khan, a retired Block Development Officer from Haryana’s Nuh district, can’t wait for the upcoming India-Pakistan World Cup match, and his reasons aren’t just cricketing. It’s been four years since Khan’s daughter, Samiya, got married to Pakistan pacer Hasan Ali in Dubai in 2019. After her wedding, she wasn’t able to make the trip across the border — till now. Apart from meeting his daughter, Liyakat will finally get a chance to hold his two-year-old granddaughter in his arms. Delhi Confidential: During a meeting with Dr Eric J Rubin, Editor-in-Chief, New England Journal of Medicine, Union Minister of State for Science Dr Jitendra Singh raised an issue close to his heart. Citing research over the years, he said it has been proven that people of Indian origin living in the US and Europe for several generations continue to have a higher risk of diabetes due to central obesity. In today’s episode of the ‘3 things’ podcast, we look at how RSS is trying to shed its 'majoritarian' image, why Mizoram defied the Central government's orders, and what a recent Lancet report reveals about the gender gap in Cancer in India. Until tomorrow, Rahel Philipose and Sonal Gupta
