A day after his alliance partner and Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad demanded that the Centre publish the findings on caste in the Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC) 2011, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday reiterated the request.
Mr. Kumar severely criticised the BJP claiming that it was using caste for political gain more than any other party.
Mr. Kumar said: “It is beyond my comprehension why they are not making public the caste details based on the SECC report as it was meant for it. The BJP is the biggest casteist party and they played caste politics in the last general election.”
He said the report would give everyone a fair idea about the social composition of Indian society. “It is important to know the correct proportion of castes for formulating welfare plans but the BJP-led Central government has been keeping it under wraps,” he said.
Lalu’s marchEarlier, Mr. Prasad had announced that he would lead a march to the Raj Bhavan on July 13 against the Centre’s delay in publication of the complete report.
The Lalu-Nitish alliance got unexpected support when leader of the Hindustani Awam Morcha and NDA ally, Jitan Ram Manjhi on Monday said the caste census data must be made public.
BJP stand
State BJP leaders told The Hindu that the leaders and parties who believed in caste politics had been making hue and cry over the report.
“Both Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar are demanding to make the report public just to extract electoral mileage out of it in the coming Assembly elections,” senior State BJP leader Nand Kishore Yadav said.
