Bihar: Differences Surface Again in Ruling NDA Over Special Category Status, Caste Census

Patna: The political situation in Bihar looks set to heat up as differences crop up among the ruling NDA over conducting a caste-based census, and fresh demand of special category status to the state. After Chief Minister Nitish Kumar expressed his willingness to conduct a caste-based census, his senior-most cabinet colleague Bijendra Yadav in the latest letter to NITI Aayog raised an old demand by stating that Bihar “fulfilled all the criteria” to accord special status.

Unlike Kumar and Janata Dal (United) leaders, who have been supporting a caste-based census and made a fresh pitch for special category status to Bihar, BJP, their ally in the ruling coalition leaders have either made expressed a different stand or have avoided saying anything publicly.

A day after Yadav, the state minister for planning and implementation, who is also a senior JD-U leader and considered close to Kumar, strongly demanded special category status to NITI Aayog vice-chairman Rajiv Kumar, Bihar deputy chief minister Renu Kumari, a senior BJP leader, questioned the relevance of such demand and claimed that the Central government led by Narendra Modi has been giving more funds to the state than to special category status.

“The Centre is already providing adequate funds for the development of the state, which is more than the state could get under special category status. There is no need for special category status to Bihar,” she said.

Contrary to her, Yadav cited NITI Aayog’s recent report on the multidimensional poverty index in which Bihar was placed at the bottom in the country. He also cited the data of per capita income and ease of living and human development below the national average.

Interestingly, Yadav in September this year surprised one and all when he announced that JD-U has dropped its demand for special status and that instead, it would be seeking special packages for all sectors. “We are tired of demanding it time and again from the Centre, so have decided to drop the demand for special status,” Yadav said. Later the JD-U corrected it by saying that demand is part of its agenda.

Another senior BJP leader and former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi claimed that NITI Aayog’s projection about Bihar’s position in the index was far from the truth. “Bihar has moved forward and developed. NITI Aayog report is not real,” he said. By stating this Modi indirectly contradicted Yadav’s demand, who is widely seen as a voice of Kumar on the issue.

Earlier also, BJP leaders had opposed Kumar’s over one and half decade old demand of special category status to Bihar.

By raking up a long pending demand close to the heart of Nitish Kumar, JD-U leaders have made it clear to BJP that the party will not compromise with its agenda. Kumar and his party have raised this issue time and again for political purposes. In the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, KC Tyagi, national spokesperson of JD-U, had promised voters in Bihar that if the party wins at least 15 Lok Sabha seats, it will work for getting special category status to the state. The JD-U won 16 of 17 seats it contested. But Kumar failed to get his old demand of special category status to Bihar despite sharing power with the BJP-led NDA in the state and at the Centre.

However, Kumar was silent on the issue as the demand was missing entirely from his speeches during the Bihar assembly polls campaign in 2020. Special status for Bihar was his party’s main poll plank for the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, the 2010 Assembly polls, and then the 2014 Lok Sabha and the 2015 Assembly polls as well.

Political watchers here said that in the past, Nitish Kumar had done everything from launching a signature campaign to taking out rallies in Delhi and Patna to staging dharnas to push for special status for Bihar.

It should be noted that earlier on several occasions, the Bihar CM had stated that the state would take at least 25 years to touch the national average of economic growth if the special category status was not accorded to it. He used to remind Delhi that Bihar’s per capita income and investment is the lowest in the country. It lags behind on all human development indicators. None of this has changed.

On the issue of conducting a caste-based census following the decision of the Central government not to conduct the caste census, Kumar last week announced that the state government will do it from its own resources. Kumar said he will convene an all-party meeting over holding it soon. But Kumar is yet to hold it due to opposition from BJP.

According to JD-U leaders, ally BJP is not keen and comfortable with conducting a caste-based census as demanded by Kumar.” In the last few months, several BJP leaders publicly opposed a caste-based census and termed the demand useless.”

Kumar’s cry in favour of a caste-based census is widely seen as a result of the opposition RJD’s aggressive stand against the Centre's decision to not go in for such an exercise. Both Nitish Kumar’s JD-U and Lalu Prasad Yadav's RJD have been 'pro-Mandal' and the caste-based census is an old demand reiterated by both parties.

Nitish Kumar, who belongs to an agrarian OBC caste (Kurmi) himself, said that a caste-based census exercise should at least be conducted once. He said it would help to know the number of people belonging to different poor and marginalised castes in different regions. The last caste census was conducted in 1931 before India’s independence from the British.

The CM recalled that the Bihar Legislative Assembly passed a unanimous resolution for conducting a caste-based census in February 2019 and in February 2020 consecutively, and had sent it to the Centre. Notably, the BJP and JDU had supported the resolution calling for a caste-based census in 2020. However, the BJP does not look too keen on it now.