Despite the Congress aggressively pushing ahead with the promise of a caste-based census on the state and pan-Indian level if it is elected to power in poll-bound states and the Centre, Bihar Chief Minister emerged as the new champion of the cause of social justice as the Bihar Assembly cleared a Bill to raise reservations in the state to 75 per cent.
On Thursday, the Bihar Assembly cleared the Bihar Reservation Amendment Bill to raise the quota for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Extremely Backward Classes and Other Backward Classes from 50 per cent to 65 per cent. The additional 10 per cent quota for the Economically Weaker Section takes the cumulative reservation threshold in Bihar to 75 per cent, much above the 50 per cent ceiling set by the Supreme Court.
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Nitish Kumar’s move comes over a month after the release of the caste census data that placed OBCs, including the Extremely Backward Classes sub-group, at 63 per cent, and SCs-STs at a little over 21 per cent of the state’s population. Notably, the decision to hike quota in the state also came just days after Nitish called out the Congress for prioritising elections in five states over alliance talks within the INDIA bloc of Opposition parties.
““INDIA alliance was formed but nothing much is happening. There are Assembly elections in five states. The Congress party is more interested in those. We were all working together to take forward the Congress party but they are not worried about all this right now,” Nitish said earlier this month at a rally organised by the CPI(ML) in Patna.
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Nitish has been at the forefront of bringing diverse Opposition parties under one umbrella and also chaired the first meeting of the grouping in Patna in June this year. The second meeting came in Bengaluru in mid-July. However, discussions on seat-sharing and other issues have remained unattended since that last meeting, leading to some unease among INDIA constituents.
Moreover, the Congress’ attempt to champion the cause of caste census has also caused discomfort to the social justice parties including Nitish Kumar’s JD(U), Lalu Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) as well as the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party. These parties have long positioned themselves as the pioneers of reservation politics and have gained immensely since the Mandal movement of the early 90s.
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Addressing a rally in Madhya Pradesh on Thursday, SP president Yadav said that the Congress was opposed to the implementation of the Mandal Commission recommendations and has historically opposed the idea of a caste-based census. “The Congress, which never talked about social justice, is doing so today. Who stopped the Mandal Commission recommendations? The Congress. Who stopped the caste census? The Congress,” he said.
Clearly, Nitish is unlikely to go soft on Congress on the issue of caste census, especially since it was always his brainchild. But the Congress isn’t the only target that the Bihar CM eyes. On one hand is the BJP, with whom he broke ties in August last year to return to the Mahagathbandhan. Nitish’s pitch has left BJP visibly uneasy and squandering for answers to the caste census googly.
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Having failed to firm up a calibrated response, the party now says it has never opposed the idea and that its own Bihar unit has supported Nitish all along on this. Insiders, however, reveal that the party plans to address the unease within the upper castes by implementing the Justice Rohini COmmission report on sub-categorisation of OBCs. This, while keeping its standing intact within the OBCs, would also soothe upper castes that the Centre could address the backward classes sentiment without eating into their share.
The second target that Nitish has his eye on is the RJD which has regained supremacy in the state following Nitish Kumar’s U-turn last year. With the caste census showing a depleting Kurmi population, a caste Nitish himself belongs to as compared to the 14 per cent population of the Yadavs, Nitish hopes to gain equal footing with the RJD with the EBC play. The EBC category accounts for 36 per cent of the state’s population, the biggest chunk as per the caste survey report.
As elections draw closer, observers expect Nitish to play on the Congress and the BJP’s indecisiveness on the issue of caste census to project himself as a stronger, taller leader among the masses. The Congress has already been dragging its feet on the caste census conducted in Karnataka, presumably fearing the impact it could have on the crucial Lingayat and Vokkaliga sentiment in the state. It is precisely this dilemma on walking the talk that Nitish would hope to use to his advantage in his bid to hit many birds with a single stone.