Caste census: Bihar BJP chief says, ‘No checks, a Rohingya can be a citizen’

Jaiswal: We are fully backing the caste survey. Maybe Vijay Kumar Sinha got confused and could not express his feelings properly. Our party colleague Janak Ram was very much part of the 10-party delegation that had met the PM under the leadership of the Bihar CM over the caste census demand. We also suported it in both the Assembly and the Council.

But why is your party criticising the caste-based survey now that it has got underway?

Jaiswal: It is because there is no clarity on how the government intends to carry it out. There was no statement from the government in the recently concluded Winter Session of the Assembly on the survey, which is otherwise part of the standard legislative process. Our party MLA Nitish Mishra had duly moved an adjournment motion over it, but it was not considered. We wanted the government to discuss the format before the process got underway.

What is specific objection of the BJP?

Jaiswal: The Bihar format looks completely flawed. Suppose, a Rohingya or Bangladeshi migrant has been living in a hut but hides information of their nationality, there are chances that they get counted as Indian citizens. That way, you are tampering with the citizenship register. Anybody building a hut and living in Bihar can easily lie to become its citizen in a clandestine way. What is the information cross-check mechanism in the state census?

How do you view the CM saying that sub-castes would not be counted?

Jaiswal: This sounds absurd. Earlier, we were told that both castes and sub-castes would be counted. But, a day before the survey started, the CM said only castes would be counted. This will disrupt the entire criteria of the existing reservation system. Will they count Mahapatra as just Brahmin? Similarly, Baniya has several sub-castes. Or, will they treat a Dangi as a Kushwaha or give them an independent status? Not counting sub-castes would mess up with the entire quota system, based on sub-caste criteria in many cases. Actually, the CM perhaps does not want sub-castes to be counted so that it is not revealed that his own OBC Kurmi sub-caste, Awadhiya, is very small in numbers. The CM is afraid that his politics would get limited to Nalanda alone once sub-castes are counted.

So what is the solution as per you?

Jaiswal: I think Haryana has adopted a very good model even without carrying out any caste census. It has issued two cards — permanent cards to its domiciles, temporary ones to those from other states. It has also issued two cards — Family identity card and Antyodaya card — both with caste details. It seems the best model to extend benefits of government welfare schemes and also to mark the difference between domiciles and non-domiciles.

The BJP also has a different stand at the Centre and state levels on the caste census?

Jaiswal: Even the central BJP is not opposed to it. The Centre has duly allowed the state to carry out its own caste-based survey. The Centre had itself carried out a socio-economic survey and the result was claims of about 4.5 lakh castes, as against our previous official data of about 4,800 castes in India. The Karnataka government also did a caste-based survey, but it never brought out the report because it was flawed. The Bihar government too, is completing a formality in the name of caste-based census at the expense of Rs 500 crore.