Pitching for a comprehensive classification of caste data before its release, Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said that once in public domain it will hit leaders like Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar the most. Paswan, Lok Janshakti Party chief, also claimed the Extremely Backward Castes among the OBCs have shifted allegiance to the NDA led by Indian Prime Minister, who himself belongs to EBC.
“LJP’s demand is that even if there is some delay, the government should make the caste data public only after its thorough classification. The categorisation will take time but when it is out, those who are making the maximum noise over it will be hit the hardest,” he said.
Bihar’s JD(U) Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and RJD chief Lalu Prasad, who have stitched up an alliance for the state Assembly polls, have been insisting on the data being released immediately.
Parties like Samajwadi Party, JD(U), RJD and DMK have criticised the Centre for not releasing the caste-based data in the Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC), the first in eight decades since 1912. The government on Thursday set up an expert group headed by NITI Ayog Vice-Chairman Arvind Panagariya to collate caste count and blamed the states for not being able to complete the consolidation of different categories.
“Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar, who have benefited from Mandal politics, will be the big losers as other smaller castes among backwards, who together numerically outnumber some particular dominant upper castes, will seek their share of power,” Paswan told Reportes in an interview.
Paswan, who was a member of the V P Singh Cabinet when Mandal Commission’s recommendations were implemented, also said the NDA, of which he is a part now, will win Bihar polls hands down if the data comes out.
On Lalu and Nitish Kumar’s contention that Narendra Modi was not the first OBC Prime Minister as claimed by BJP chief Amit Shah, Paswan said former PM H D Deve Gowda was a Vokkaliga, which is a powerful community in Karnataka.
“Modi’s caste falls under extremely backdward castes (EBC) in Gujarat,” he said and exuded confidence that EBCs will vote for NDA. Quoting from Ram Manohar Lohia’s book “Wheel of History”, Paswan said the late socialist leader had predicted that power will first transfer from upper castes to powerful castes among OBCs, but if the dominant castes among OBCs behave in the same manner with the lower castes, the lower castes will ally with upper castes again.
Paswan said it was witnessed in Uttar Pradesh when Dalits and upper castes, especially Brahmins, joined hands with Jatavs under Mayawati. “It will happen in Bihar as well. Upper castes, extremely backward castes, dalits and mahadalits have already come together.
Last Lok Sabha polls. It will happen again,” he said.
“I want to ask what Kush got during Nitish’s rule. Upendra Kushwaha had to part ways with him and now he is a Union minister,” he said. Kushwaha’s Rashtriya Lok Samata Party, which broke away from JD(U), is a part of the NDA.
Asserting that JD(U)-RJD alliance has “no future”, the LJP president claimed Yadavs will not vote for candidates of Nitish Kumar’s party.
“Past experience shows that Laluji fails to get his votes transferred to other alliance partners. His vote base never voted for LJP candidates when we fought in alliance with Lalu,” he said.
The new cases of corona in the country (Corona Cases in India) have crossed the three thousand ma
Yadav and Pasmanda Muslims, what is BJP's 2024 plan; Who is giving tension to Akhilesh
PM Narendra Modi addressed the program organized on the occasion of the 10th death anniversary of
A Bajrang Dal worker was stabbed to death at around 9 pm on Sunday in Karnataka's Shivamogga dist
AQI Update: A slight decline in pollution level was seen in Delhi-NCR last Monday, but once again
French President Emmanuel Macron met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Monday. A
Understand how the sign of Z like Swastika became a sign of Russian invasion.
Russia's attack on Ukraine continues. Russia has been trying to control Ukraine for the past 12 d
Union Home Minister Amit Shah has announced the date of construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya
The T20 International series between India and South Africa is one of the few fixtures between th
Despite tensions over the Ukraine invasion, cooperation between the United States and Russia cont
Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi said on Wednesday that he has spoken to Home Minis
