State Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Wednesday informed the House that his Government has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking time to hold discussion on caste based census. In a brief letter, dated September 7, addressed to the Prime Minister, the letter states, “A nine member delegation under me (Soren) wants to meet you putting the demand and discuss caste based census.” The letter further mentions, requesting Prime Minister Modi to provide appointment at the earliest so that the matter can be discussed.
Soren informed the House, amidst BJP protest over allotment of room for offering Namaz at Assembly premises. Though the composition of the nine member delegation is not clear, the Soren Government has also invited the Opposition BJP to be part of the delegation to meet the Prime Minister.
Caste census means inclusion of caste-wise tabulation of India’s population in the Census exercise held one in ten years. Sources said that the CM letter to PM for caste based census is seen as a master stroke as Opposition BJP despite having differences with JMM/Congress on several issues will not want to have differences on the issue as Jharkhand has a substantial population of Other Backward Caste (OBC).
Reacting to the CM’s statement, senior BJP legislator and former minister Neelkanth Singh Munda said while his party was ready to cooperate on the issue of caste census; the CM should also take up the issue of “dwindling population of tribals in the state”.
AJSU Party which is part of NDA alliance, too, has taken a clear stand in favour of caste census. Sudesh Mahto, former deputy CM and president of AJSU Party, asked the Chief Minister to also inform the House about his electoral promise to expand the reservation for the Other Backward Castes (OBCs) in the state to 27 per cent from existing 14 per cent. Making his party stand clear in the House, Sudesh Mahto said, “Our party is with caste based census, but the Chief Minister should clear his stand on increasing reservation to OBC from 14 per cent to 27 per cent.”
It may be noted that both JMM and AJSU Party had promised increasing OBC reservation in last year's Assembly election.
The Chief Minister’s letter on caste based census assumes importance as Chief minister of neighbouring Bihar Nitish Kumar, who is heading a coalition government of the JDU and BJP, also favours caste based census and led an all-party delegation to meet the Prime Minister on August 23.