© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
Tags:
Journalism of Courage
THE ruling JD(U) is following up the Bihar caste survey with a mega meeting of Scheduled Castes in Patna on November 5 called the “Bhim Sansad”. As part of this, JD(U) supremo and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar flagged off several “Bhim Sansad Raths” in Patna on October 10, which will be travelling to different parts of Bihar to mobilise crowds for the November meeting.
Key leaders who have hit the road include ministers and important Dalit leaders Ashok Kumar Choudhary, Sunil Kumar and Ranesh Sada.
The Bihar caste survey report puts the state’s SC population at 19.65% of the total, against the previous estimate of about 16%. Soon after the report was released, Nitish had specifically mentioned this fact, apart from the fact that the Economically Backward Classes (EBCs) formed the biggest social group, at 36.1%.
Choudhary, who is the Building Construction Minister, said: “The idea behind the Bhim Sansad is to work towards equality in society, which our government has been doing with its slogan ‘development with justice’. In our pre-Bhim Sansad interactions, we are meeting people across the state to tell them to join hands with us. We want to make our November meeting a big success.”
Choudhary said that they would tell people how Nitish as CM had carved out a separate SC/ST Welfare Department from the Social Welfare Department in 2007. “While the Social Welfare Department had a budget of Rs 40.48 crore in 2005-06, the SC/ST Welfare Department alone had a budget of Rs 2,215.30 crore in 2022-23. Among sundry benefits being given to SC/ST people are Rs 50,000 each to those who qualify prelims of the Bihar Public Services Examination and Rs 1 lakh to those clearing Union Public Service Examination prelims. The government also gives scholarships to SC/ST students of Classes 1 to 10.”
Sunil Kumar, the Prohibition and Excise Minister, and Ratnesh Sada, the SC/ST Welfare Minister, have been deployed in Siwan/Gopalganj and Kosi/Seemanchal (Saharsa, Madhepura, Purnia and Katihar) areas, respectively, to generate crowds for the Bhim Sansad.
A senior JD(U) leader said: “SCs and EBCs have always been our areas of focus. Now that the caste survey report shows them as big social groups, we have started by reaching out to the SCs first. A devoted meeting for EBCs could be also on the cards. There are many takeaways from the survey. We have to start capitalising on them before the BJP offers any counter strategy.”
After Nitish took over as the CM in November 2005, he had clubbed together 21 SCs as “Mahadalits”, leaving out only the Paswans (a constituency of Dalit leader Ram Vilas Paswan). This helped him rally support among these Dalit groups, and build up his political capital, despite belonging to a caste group (Kurmis), who have minuscule presence in Bihar. Making Jitan Ram Manjhi the CM in 2014 when he stepped down briefly was part of Nitish’s strategy to show his support for Dalit welfare.
BJP national spokesperson Guru Prakash Paswan said: “Bhim Sansad is nothing more than political symbolism. JD(U) and Nitish Kumar have expertise in these symbols. One still remembers how Manjhi was made CM as only a placeholder, and later removed unceremoniously. Nitish also divided the SCs by creating a Mahadalit category. But the JD(U) does not have any SC leader of substance in its ranks.”
Dismissing the BJP’s criticism, Choudhary said: “They are the ones who talk about review of reservation.”
