Ravi Shankar Prasad slams Nitish government over caste survey, says it has ‘fake data’

Mr. Prasad alleged that survey was an attempt to fragment or decrease the EBC numbers or to limit those castes which are anti Lalu and anti-Nitish.

Senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad. File | Photo Credit: PTI

Senior BJP leader and Patna Sahib MP Ravi Shankar Prasad on Wednesday accused the Nitish Kumar government of not conducting a proper caste-based survey in the State. He also said the survey has “fake data”. 

Mr. Prasad said there are media reports of undercounting of Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs) in the survey. He said areas with large concentration of EBCs were deliberately omitted to project a lower figure. He added that despite being the head of the family, the survey team did not speak with him; instead, they took the information from the gatekeeper and left.

“When the talk of caste-based survey commenced, the BJP supported it strongly. It saw it as part of our commitment. However, the issue here is whether it was conducted rightly or wrongly. What kind of survey was done by the Kumar government? We are receiving several complaints about this survey,” Mr. Prasad said at the party office, accompanied by MLAs of Patna district including Nitin Navin, Arun Sinha, Nand Kishore Yadav, and Sanjeev Chaurasia.

He further stressed that the BJP will not hesitate to ask questions on how the numbers were collected. “Was there an attempt to decrease EBC numbers or undercount castes which are anti-Lalu [Prasad] and anti-Nitish by not doing proper field surveys? I am saying all this with proof,” Mr. Prasad asserted.

He then showed a paper which was allegedly used during training of enumerators for the survey.

“Look at this format which says that there should be a signature of the family head or thumb impression along with date. I am MP of Patna; I have been a Minister in the Government of India and nothing was asked from me during this survey. Forget the signature, no one even met me. When I enquired I came to know that some people had come and gathered the information at the gate and left. What has happened with others if the survey team did not take signature of an MP who represents Patna? I don’t want to name anyone but I have spoken to several people who said the same thing about the survey,” Mr. Shankar added.

Mr. Kumar on Tuesday held an all-party meeting where the Opposition BJP and few other parties had raised objections over alleged irregularities in the survey after which the Chief Minister reportedly directed officials to look into them.

Mr. Prasad further said the BJP will demand that the government reveal to the country, the “number of families approached for the survey and how many signatures or thump impressions of family heads were taken”. “We want this data in public. I never talk much about caste but it was important to speak on this fake data.”

Without naming former Chief Minister Mr. Lalu Prasad’s family, he said the BJP has always supported the rights of EBCs, and never restricted Other Backward Class (OBC) “to one single family”.

Meanwhile, Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) leader and former Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi on Wednesday asked Mr. Kumar to dissolve the current Cabinet and form a new one based on the survey. He made this statement on X (formerly Twitter).

The survey found that EBCs comprised 36.01% of the State’s population, OBCs 27.12%, Upper Castes 15.52%, Scheduled Castes 19.65%, and Scheduled Tribes 1.68%.