As Patna High Court upholds Bihar caste census, it is advantage Nitish Kumar

Kumar and the JD(U) are also likely to frame the caste survey as a fight of socialists favouring “Mandal” versus the ruling BJP’s politics of “Kamandal”. With the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) and the inauguration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya in January 2024 likely to be the BJP’s main pitch for the Lok Sabha elections, Nitish is most likely to use the caste survey report — which is expected to be ready by this year-end if the process proceeds uninterrupted — as a “social justice” and “development with justice” themed counter to the BJP, asking other states to replicate the Bihar example.

“Kumar is likely to use the caste survey as a Mandal 3.0 against the BJP’s Hindutva or ‘kamandal’ politics,” said a senior JD(U) leader, indicating that while the implementation of the recommendations made in the 1980 Mandal Commission report in 1990 was Mandal 1.0, Nitish Kumar’s emphasis on developmental politics in his first full term as the CM of Bihar in 2005 should be considered Mandal 2.0.

Among other states, while Telangana and Karnataka have conducted caste surveys, they have yet to come out with the reports. A JD(U) leader said, “Had the court not ordered a stay, we could have brought out the report of the caste survey by now. We had completed over 60% of the process and might need two more months to complete it. We can still bring out the survey report by the Winter Session of the Bihar legislature and show the way to the rest of the country. The Patna High Court was right in saying that the state cannot ‘sit on haunches’ if the Centre can’t conduct such a survey.”

Although all parties in Bihar, including the BJP, have supported the implementation of the caste survey, the advantage is still likely to go to Kumar because he has been at the forefront of pushing the process through by twice getting Assembly resolutions on it passed unanimously. Kumar also led a 10-party delegation to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi to demand a nationwide caste survey. While the Bihar BJP is rushing to claim its share of credit for the exercise, the party finds it hard to explain why its leadership at the Centre has been shying away from it.

JD(U) MLC and spokesperson Neeraj Kumar said, “Many questions were being asked when the High Court had stayed the caste survey in May. But now we are going to set a great precedent for others to follow. In the absence of a caste census since 1931, we do not have data to know the socio-economic status of the people. It could have been great if there was a countrywide caste census, but at least Bihar will have its data now.”

BJP Rajya Sabha MP and former Deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi said, “The caste survey decision was taken during the NDA days. Hence, no party should get full credit. Our political opponents are also maliciously accusing us of having connections with the petitioners in the matter, which impeded the implementation of the caste survey. We have nothing to do with them. Had the state government defended itself well before, the court wouldn’t have stayed the survey in May.”