Disquiet Within Bihar’s Ruling Alliance Over Caste Census, Questions Raised Over Alleged Manipulation

Within a week of Bihar unveiling the results of its controversial caste survey, some prominent leaders of the two main constituents in Bihar’s ruling mahagathbandhan have raised questions over the exercise.

Alleging manipulation of the entire exercise to suit the interests of a few powerful castes, a handful of leaders of both the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Janata Dal (United) are demanding that the detailed, booth-wise and block-wise results of the survey be published. 

JD(U)’s Lok Sabha MP from Sitamarhi, Sunil Kumar Pintu, had referred to complaints from a huge number of people who said they were left out of the survey. 

Pintu also expressed serious doubts over the authenticity of the survey.

“The survey pegs the Sahu-Teli caste at 2.81 per cent of the state’s population, but their actual numbers are far higher. Similarly, the percentage of many other castes and subcastes is either grossly inflated or under-reported. The survey is full of anomalies,” Pintu told Swarajya. 

RJD leader and member of Bihar Legislative Council (MLC) Ram Bali Singh has also slammed the survey.

“The survey has been manipulated to suit the political interests of a few powerful castes. This is a political conspiracy against some castes which are extremely backward,” said Singh. 

“If I were to accept the survey report, I will demand that Nitish Kumar vacate his chair for a person from the extremely backward caste (EBC) which, the survey revealed, is the biggest socially disadvantaged group,” said Singh. 

The RJD MLC’s criticism has left the RJD leadership red-faced. But many non-Yadav leaders of the mahagathbandhan are backing him. 

“What Ram Bali Singh said is true. Many of us who are not Yadavs have reason to believe that the survey has been manipulated,” said a former RJD MLA. 

These leaders have raised the demand for making the entire survey report public.

“Let the ward-wise data collected by the surveyors be published. People will then be able to see for themselves that the survey has been manipulated. Many have been left out, and many others have submitted false information. This survey is severely flawed,” Singh added. 

The BJP has backed the demand for publishing all the data collected for the survey.

“A booth-wise or ward-wise publication of the data collected will allow people to scrutinise the data and see for themselves if their names have been left out or if others in their localities have submitted false information,” said BJP leader Sanjay Jaiswal. 

BJP state party chief Samrat Chaudhury told Swarajya: “We have been saying from the very beginning that the process of collecting data for the survey is flawed and the entire exercise will turn out to be a futile one. That is exactly what has happened”. 

“In the interest of transparency, we demand that the entire report and all the data collected should be made public immediately. Failure on (Chief Minister) Nitish Kumar’s part to do so will only reinforce suspicions that the survey is manipulated and severely flawed,” Chaudhury added. 

BJP leader Jaiswal claimed that a lot of data has been manipulated by cadres of the RJD and JD(U) after the enumeration was over.

“The enumeration itself was flawed, and after the data collected by the enumerators was submitted, the data was doctored and falsified,” he said. 

Jaiswal also said members of many castes and subcastes falling in the OBC, EBC and SC categories feel their total numbers have been manipulated and depressed.

“Nitish Kumar should come clean and remove all these misgivings,” Jaiswal said. 

Meanwhile, the demand for publishing the socio-economic data collected during the survey is also gaining momentum. The BJP was the first to raise this demand as soon as the macro results of the survey were announced last week. 

Now, leaders of other parties, including those in the ruling alliance, are echoing this demand.

“The socio-economic data collected during the survey is important and will reveal the social and economic status of various caste groups. We have been demanding the publication of this data immediately,” said Chaudhury. 

Though Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has promised that the socio-economic data will be published, he has not set a time frame and has been evasive when asked when the data will be published. 

That, say many within the mahagathbandhan, is because of the unease among many RJD and JD(U) leaders of what the data will reveal and the intense disquiet it can cause among many caste groups. 

“The socio-economic data will surely reveal that some dominant caste groups among the OBCs, especially the Yadavs, have progressed at a very fast pace socially and economically and other OBC groups are way behind. That means that these dominant OBC caste groups have cornered all benefits of reservations. That will surely lead to discontent among the other OBC groups which are lagging behind and trigger demands for a greater slice of the reservation pie for the non-Yadav OBCs,” said a JD(U) legislator. 

The demand by EBCs for greater political power commensurate with their numbers is already causing consternation in the leadership of the JD(U) and RJD. If these demands gain momentum, as they are likely to, many top leaders of both the parties, including Nitish Kumar and Tejaswi Yadav, can find the ground slipping from under their feet. 

The caste survey, said a BJP leader who did not want to be named, has let a genie out of the box. And the genie can cause a lot of harm to the entrenched leadership of the parties in the ruling mahagathbandhan.