RJD president Lalu Prasad on Sunday termed Bihar Chief Minister the biggest casteist leader,who coined and imposed an offensive term like Mahadalit on Scheduled Caste people. Lalu was reacting to The Indian Express report on existence of caste barracks and kitchens in police-lines. Lalu told The Indian Express: Though caste is a truth of society,it must not find its way in policing. How can this man (Nitish) talk of development politics when he had been actually on course of dividing society in caste and community groups with his so-called social engineering? He said that the kind of response he had been getting during his ongoing Parivatan Yatra amply exhibited peoples growing disenchantment with the NDA government. I deplore caste and community barracks, said the RJD president alleging how caste played an important role in the governments every decision. Nitish is a rank casteist trying to camouflage it with development, he said. It is not just the Opposition,which is critical of the caste system in police barracks. BJP state president C P Thakur said: We cannot allow caste barracks and kitchens. We have enough time to address it but our government failed to do so. Thakur,a prominent Bhumihar leader,said caste and development politics cannot go together. It is time we adopted some policy to dismantle caste barracks, he said. JD-U Rajya Sabha MP Ali Anwar,while defending Nitish Kumar on his development vision,admitted caste and community barracks were not acceptable. I had raised this issue 15 years ago. It is more relevant today when we are talking of development. Caste barracks must go, said Anwar. Lalu Prasad,however,has no moral right to preach on caste system and call our leader Nitish Kumar casteist. Everyone knows Nitishji gave Bihar a new identity and vision for development, said the Rajya Sabha MP. Bihar Food and Civil Supplies Minister Shyam Rajak,who represents the Mahadalit community,also gave thumbs down to caste system. How can we expect police to control riots when they think along caste and community lines? There are,however,genuine problems in dismantling caste barracks,which have been old practice since Congress days, he said.
