The Bihar government criticizes the BJP over the Patna High Court’s decision over the caste survey

The Patna High Court approved the caste survey on Tuesday, saying it was “perfectly valid” and “initiated with due competence,” giving the Nitish Kumar administration in Bihar a boost. The governing “Mahagathbandhan” (Grand Alliance), which had been battling petitions contesting the phony “census,” was understandably jubilant by the high court’s finding.

The United Opposition Alliance INDIA’s decision to make a nationwide caste census a priority for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections has so far satisfied the Mahagathbandhan.

Tejashwi Yadav, the deputy chief minister of Bihar, used Twitter to reaffirm the survey’s promised advantages and to criticize the BJP-run Central Government for its opposition to a caste census and its expression of “false pride” over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s membership in the OBC group.

“We demand that the Center conduct a census of caste. Why do those who boast about having an OBC PM not want a census of the country’s majority of impoverished and backward citizens? Yadav sent tweets in Hindi.

Lalu Prasad, the current leader of the Rashtriya Janata Dal and a former chief minister of Bihar, praised the court’s decision. “We applaud the Patna High Court’s ruling. The poll will assist the government in launching programs for the underprivileged. Their economic situation will be understood after the survey, and the government will establish plans for them based on that information, which will pave the way for progress. Standing next to his son Tejashwi, he told reporters, “I applaud the CM and Tejashwi Yadav, they worked hard. Additionally, he said that he will attend the INDIA alliance’s subsequent gathering in Mumbai.

The JD(U), to whom Chief Minister Nitish Kumar belongs, as well as the CPI(ML) Liberation and the CPI(M), two parties that are members of the governing coalition but provide the government with outside support, all issued statements praising the judgment and criticizing the BJP.

The BJP was kept busy in the meanwhile parrying the strikes. Vijay Kumar Sinha, the leader of the opposition, said that they had always welcomed the survey. “We applaud the High Court’s ruling. Keep in mind that the BJP has always backed the caste survey.

“However, if the government exploits the caste census to incite caste conflict and divert attention away from its shortcomings, we will not support it. We will continue to exert pressure on the government to release the survey’s results, he said, according to PTI.

“The Bihar government wants to move Bihar towards caste-based frenzy, and the same is happening,” said BJP leader and MP Janardan Singh Sigriwal to ANI.A component of it is the survey based on caste. The government remains silent on issues like development, crime prevention, and escalating corruption.

In its 101-page decision, the division bench, which was made up of Chief Justice K. Vinod Chandran and Justice Partha Sarathy, dismissed the petitions and stated, “We find the state’s action to be perfectly valid, initiated with due competence, and with the legitimate aim of providing development with justice.”

The verdict was introduced with the following sentence: “The action of the state in carrying out a caste survey… and the vigorous challenge raised to it on multiple grounds… reveal that despite attempts to efface it from the social fabric, caste remains a reality, and refuses to be swept aside, wished away or brushed aside nor does it wither away or disperse into thin air.”

The Centre made it clear that social groups other than the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes would not be counted as part of the census, which led to Bihar’s ambitious caste-based exercise, for which the cash-strapped state government has allocated a budget of Rs 500 crore.

In Bihar, where the numerically dominant OBCs have controlled the political landscape since the Mandal upheaval of the 1990s, the position, however, ran into difficulties.

A headcount of all castes was deemed vital by leaders like Lalu Prasad and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, both of whom credit the Mandal wave for their ascent. This was because the last time such an activity was carried out was in the 1931 census.