RJD chief Lalu Prasad on Monday led a march to the Raj Bhawan here, demanding that the Centre release the findings of the Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011 on caste — a demand backed by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
Mr. Lalu Prasad was accompanied by Tej Pratap and Tejaswi Yadav, whom the RJD chief is likely to launch into politics in the coming Assembly elections.
“You all should unite against the Narendra Modi government… We’ll compel it to release the findings of the census so that comprehensive welfare schemes could be worked out for different castes,” Mr. Lalu Prasad said.
He also appealed to the people of the Mandal (the backward classes) to uproot the Kamandal (a reference to the upper castes and also the BJP). “We’ll launch a movement bigger than the Mandal movement of the 1990s, if the Centre fails to make the findings public without delay,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mr. Nitish Kumar questioned the Centre for withholding the data. Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of his weekly Janata Durbar, he said the people were curious to know the numbers of the castes because such a census was last carried out in 1931.
In an indirect reference to BJP president Amit Shah’s remark that the BJP gave the country its first OBC Prime Minister (Mr. Modi), Mr. Nitish Kumar accused the BJP of “fraud and double standards.” “The BJP does not miss a single opportunity to highlight the Prime Minister’s caste, but it has a problem in telling the people about their numbers,” he said.
