Still away from the upcoming general election of 2024, the Bihar government on October 2 released its caste survey report and said “it’s only a compiled data and no analysis of it has been done yet”. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar congratulated the survey team while Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav termed the occasion as a “historic moment”.
The report which only revealed the caste composition in the State said the Other Backward Class (OBC) population in the State is 27.1286% while, the Extremely Backward Class (EBC) comprises 36.0148%. The Scheduled Caste population in Bihar is at 19.6518% while the Scheduled Tribe population is 1.6824% even as the General Caste population stands at 15.5224%. The report also revealed that Hindus comprise 81.9986% of the population while the Muslim share is at 17.7088%.
The survey report, titled Bihar Jaati Adharit Ganana (Bihar caste based survey), has also said that total population in the state is 13 crore. Among the Other Backward Class group, the Yadavas comprises 14.26% while the Kushwaha and Kurmi castes forms 4.27% and 2.87% respectively.
The caste survey had 17-point socio-economic indicators, including caste. It was completed in a three phased exercise in August this year with around 2.64 lakh enumerators documenting the details of 29 million registered households. The 214 castes mentioned in the survey were allotted different individual codes.
“Today on the auspicious occasion of Gandhi Jayanti, the data of the caste based census conducted in Bihar has been published. Many congratulations to the entire team engaged in the work of caste based enumeration. The proposal for the caste based survey was passed unanimously in the State legislature,” CM Nitish Kumar said on X (formerly Twitter) as he congratulated the survey team. “All nine political parties of the State assembly will now be called for a meeting to apprise them about the caste based survey report,” Kumar further said.
Deputy Chief Minister, and Rashtriya Janata Dal leader, Tejashwi Yadav said, “Bihar once again became witness of a historic moment with the compilation of caste based survey data and its release thereafter in such a short time. Bihar has now drawn a long line and set an example before the country. What has happened in Bihar today, shall have its voice heard tomorrow across the whole country. And tomorrow is not far ahead. Bihar once again has shown light to the country.”
The Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Bihar said it was never against the caste survey. “The BJP has always been in favour of the caste survey,” said senior state BJP leader and Union Minister Giriraj Singh.
The Bihar Government launched a two-phase caste survey on January 7. The survey recorded the economic status of families alongside their caste, and has estimatedly collected socio-economic data for a population of 12.70 crore in the 38 districts of Bihar.
The Union Government in 2011 had undertaken a survey of castes through the Socio-Economic and Caste Census of 2011 (SECC-2011). However, the data was never made public.
Shutdown hits normal life in Manipur’s Churachandpur
A complete shutdown in the tribal-dominated Churachandpur district of Manipur on October 2 brought normal life to a standstill.
Kuki organisations had called for the bandh to protest against the arrest of seven people, including two minors, from the area by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Suspects in the case of the kidnapping and killing of two Manipuri youths in July this year were among the arrested people.
Circulation of photos of the two youngsters on social media in recent times had led to an upsurge of demonstrations in Imphal Valley, leading to the case being handed over to the CBI.
Public vehicles were off the road, while markets and business establishments remained shut during the shutdown in Churacandpur district, police said. The Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum (ITLF), a conglomerate of recognised tribals of Manipur, had called for an indefinite shutdown in the district from 10 a.m. on October 2 to protest against the arrests and demanded that they be released within 48 hours.
Churachandpur-based Joint Students Body (JSB) also called a 12-hour shutdown in the district from 6 a.m. on October 2.
Two youths — Phijam Hemanjit, a 20-year-old man, and Hijam Linthoingambi, a girl of 17 years of age — had gone missing on July 6. Photos of their bodies surfaced on September 25 leading to violent protests mainly by students.
Chief Minister N. Biren Singh on October 1 said that four people were arrested by the CBI in connection with the kidnapping and killing of two Manipuri youths, and the government would ensure the maximum punishment for them.
Singh had also said that the NIA on September 30 arrested one person from Churachandpur in connection with a case of a transnational conspiracy by Myanmar and Bangladesh-based leadership of terror outfits to wage war against India by exploiting the current ethnic strife in Manipur.
The arrested person was the second accused apprehended in the case, registered suo motu on July 19. On September 22, the NIA arrested another person from Manipur in connection with it.
More than 180 people lost their lives and several hundreds were injured since the ethnic clashes broke out in Manipur on May 3, after a ‘Tribal Solidarity March’ was organised in the hill districts to protest against the Meitei community’s demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status.
Medicine Nobel 2023 awarded to Katalin Karikó, Drew Weissman for their work in mRNA vaccines
This year’s Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine has been jointly awarded to Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman for their “discoveries concerning nucleoside base modification that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19”, The Royal Swedish Academy of Science announced on October 2, 2023.
Through their groundbreaking findings, which have fundamentally changed our understanding of how mRNA interacts with our immune system, the laureates contributed to the unprecedented rate of vaccine development during one of the greatest threats to human health in modern times, the press release said.
As early as the 1990s, biochemist Katalin Karikó had understood the significance of mRNA as a therapeutic. However, she and her colleague and immunologist, Drew Weissman’s research came to fruition in 2005 when they published a paper that investigated the impact of nucleoside modification and its effect on the immune system.
Further research papers published in 2008 and 2010 helped fine-tune the initial discovery and helped reduce both inflammatory responses and increased protein production thereby removing critical obstacles which hindered the clinical applications of mRNA.
The pair, who had been tipped as favourites, “contributed to the unprecedented rate of vaccine development during one of the greatest threats to human health in modern times,” the jury said, according to AFP.
In honouring the pair this year, the Nobel committee in Stockholm broke with its usual practice of honouring decades-old research. The first vaccines to use the mRNA technology were those made by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna against COVID-19.
Karikó of Hungary and Weissman of the United States, longstanding colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania, have won a slew of awards for their research, including the prestigious Lasker Award in 2021, often seen as a precursor to the Nobel.
Last year the Nobel Prize for Physiology was awarded to Swedish scientist Svante Pääbo “for his discoveries concerning the genomes of extinct hominins and human evolution.” Dr. Pääbo’s pioneering work in an entirely new discipline—paleogenomics—has helped the scientific community understand human evolution and migration at a deeper level.
The Prize for Physiology or Medicine kicks off a week of Nobel Prize announcements. The winners for Physics will be announced on October 3, followed by Chemistry on October 4. The winners of the Literature, Peace and Economic Sciences Prize will be declared on October 5, October 6 and October 9 respectively.
The prizes carry a cash award of 10 million Swedish kronor (nearly $900,000) and will be awarded on December 10. The money comes from a bequest left by the prize’s creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel, who died in 1895.
In Punjab, differences start to emerge within Congress, AAP over INDIA bloc
Even as the widening rift between the Indian National Development Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) partners the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has been on public display in Punjab, the pact at the national level appears to have started brewing differences within these parties now as their leaders are airing different voices about collectively fighting the 2024 parliamentary poll in Punjab.
While many leaders from the State units of both the Congress and the AAP in Punjab have been opposing a poll alliance for the upcoming Lok Sabha election, a few have started to favour the poll alliance for a larger cause, which could trigger internal squabbling in days to come.
The central leaderships of these parties have already joined hands and become the part of INDIA bloc to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led National Democratic Alliance in the general election, due next year.
On Monday, the leader of the Opposition in Punjab, Congress’s Partap Singh Bajwa equated the possible alliance with the AAP in Punjab to “death warrants of the Congress”, which he said he could never sign. “I joined the Congress in the year 1978 as district youth president, I became the youth Congress president and I became party State president. I have served as a cabinet Minister and have been the member of Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. Today, I am the Congress Legislature Party leader, and will not, at the fag end of my career, sign the death warrant of the Congress party,” Bajwa told The Hindu.
“Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, and I, had held meetings of all MLAs, Punjab Congress Committee, which comprised of all block presidents, district presidents, all the 117 Congress candidates who contested on party symbol in the previous assembly poll, as well as former MLAs. All of them told us in the simplest possible terms that it be conveyed to the high command that they don’t want any alliance with the AAP. What we gathered from our cadre we have already conveyed to the high command. This alliance will finish the Congress,” said Bajwa.
Several senior leaders of the Congress’s Punjab unit have been critical of the alliance with the AAP, and have been consistently alleging that the AAP had unleashed a ‘witch-hunt’ campaign against the Congress leaders and workers by misusing the police and investigation agencies. The recent arrest of Punjab Congress MLA Sukhpal Khaira in connection with a case surrounding the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, pertaining to the year 2015, has only added to the Congress’s annoyance.
However, former Punjab Congress president and senior Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu’s remark in support of the alliance has put the party’s internal differences on the critical issue in the public domain. On Sunday, Sidhu, took to X (formerly Twitter) saying, “The INDIA alliance stands like a tall mountain, a storm here and there will not affect its Grandeur !! Any attempt to sabotage and breach this shield to safeguard our democracy will prove futile.. Punjab must understand that this is an election to choose India’s Prime Minister and not Punjab’s Chief Minister!!”
With Sidhu batting for the INDIA bloc openly, the difference of opinion in the Congress’s State unit leaders surrounding jointly contesting election in Punjab could invite fresh trouble for the party, which is yet to take a final call on the tricky matter.
On the other hand, certain State leaders of the AAP have also dismissed the possibility of an alliance with the Congress in Punjab, even as some others have favoured the alliance talks.
Last month, Punjab Tourism Minister Anmol Gagan Maan clearly stated there would be no alliance of the AAP with the Congress party in Punjab. However, Punjab’s Finance Minister and senior party leader Harpal Singh Cheema had earlier spoken in favour of the alliance, saying that the objective of the INDIA bloc was very big, and in a bid to achieve it small differences must be kept apart.
Ajay Maken’s appointment as Congress treasurer reveals Rahul Gandhi’s influence
The appointment of Ajay Maken as the treasurer of the Congress, a post that is as important as the general secretary-organisation (GSO), indicates the influence former party chief Rahul Gandhi wields over Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge’s presidency.
The incumbent GSO, K.C. Venugopal, along with Maken, are considered to be die-hard Rahul Gandhi loyalists. Randeep Surjewala, who is All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary in-charge of poll-bound Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka, makes it a trio.
His posting could be the first among a series of appointments that are expected to take place as part of organisation reshuffle. “We discussed ways to strengthen the party and organisation. I wish him a fruitful tenure ahead,” Kharge said on Monday in a post on X after Maken called on him at his official residence.
Maken had resigned from the Congress Working Committee (CWC) as well as the AICC in-charge of Rajasthan last November after failing to resolve the leadership tussle between Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot.
On August 20, when Kharge announced the new CWC, the former Delhi Congress chief was brought back as a member and, now made the treasurer. However, the much awaited organisation reshuffle or redesignation of organisational responsibilities seems to have been delayed.
There is speculation that finding a suitable role for Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who was handling Uttar Pradesh earlier, is also one of the reasons for the delay. Opinion is divided whether she should be tied down with the responsibility of managing one State or be used as a star campaigner across States.
The upcoming Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Telangana and Mizoram also makes the reshuffle a difficult exercise in these States.
With Lok Sabha elections barely six months away, the Congress President, however, will soon have to announce a team that will make the State units battle-ready.
In Brief:
A day after his victory in the Maldives’s election run-off, President-elect Mohamed Muizzu secured the transfer of former President and jailed Maldivian leader Abdulla Yameen to home confinement. Yameen, who was serving a 11-year-jail term following conviction in a corruption case, returned home on Sunday, to a rousing welcome from his supporters, according to local media. Soon after Saturday’s poll verdict, Muizzu requested President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih to release Yameen.
Evening Wrap will return tomorrow.
