Prashant Kishor wades into caste census minefield, RJD fires back, saying ‘no more Eklavyas’

No sooner had Kishor, who is on a padyatra across Bihar, said this, that a counter came from the RJD side. Without naming anyone, the party’s Madhepura MLA and Education Minister Chandra Shekhar, countered saying: “We are Eklavyas who no longer offer our thumbs. Now we take away others’ thumbs, if needed.”

The reference was clearly to the lower-caste origins of Eklavya, in the Mahabharata, who was asked for his thumb by Guru Dronacharya, ostensibly to ensure that his Kshatriya disciple Arjun had no competitor in bow-and-arrow skills.

The fact that Chandra Shekhar countered Kishor on behalf of the RJD – whose rise ended upper-caste dominance in Bihar politics — was interesting. Chandra Shekhar recently set off a row over the Ramcharitmanas, calling some of its portions “offensive” towards the backward castes and women – a row that is now playing out in neighbouring UP.

Addressing reporters in Siwan during his Jan Suraaj campaign, Kishor said: “I wonder what purpose would a caste census serve? After all, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Muslims are already being counted. Has their condition improved? Doing a caste census is like sitting in the library, not reading any book and still thinking one could become Einstein.”

Kishor added that the OBCs, Extremely Backward Classes and Muslims that the Mahagathbandhan government of the RJD, JD(U) and Congress seemed to be trying to cater to, already voted for Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. “Caste census would only increase caste frenziness,” Kishor said.

Going on to attack the RJD, he added: “Whenever the RJD is in the government or is part of the government, there is always a threat of law and order deterioration. Now, the RJD looks in control of the present government. Misrule is part of the RJD culture.”

Chandra Shekhar responded, saying: “I had said only a couple of things (on the Ramcharitmanas) and it created a row. We are not ones to take things lying down. We are Eklavyas who no longer offer their thumbs but can take away others’ thumbs, if needed.”

The Bihar government has argued that a caste census is needed to determine specifically the number of OBCs in the state, and that this would help plan welfare schemes more effectively. While the Centre has resisted the demand for the same nationally, in Bihar, given the support for such a census, the BJP has supported it.

However, the party remains wary of the fallout on its upper caste vote bank. BJP Saran MP Rajiv Pratap Rudy, for example, has been consistently raising the Saran killings, and has also sought to link the same to the tensions arising from the caste census.

BJP Bihar president Sanjay Jaiswal has said that while the party supports the census, it was not consulted by the Bihar government before preparing the format for it.

With the report of the census likely by year end, the issue is likely to gather more political heat come February 25, when the state will see two simultaneous public events, seen as harbingers to the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

As the Mahabandhan holds a joint rally in Purnea, Union Home Minister Amit Shah will be in Patna to commemorate farmers’ icon Swami Sahjanand Saraswati.

Mahagathbandhan sources admit that as the BJP falls back on its “Hindutva plus nationalism” pitch, they hope their “backward versus forward” politics will be an effective counter.