Responding to RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav‘s demand for a nationwide caste census and inclusion of 65 per cent quota increase in Bihar in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution, Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Kumar Jha said, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar ensured that caste census took place in Bihar.
“CM Nitish Kumar ensured that caste census took place in Bihar. He took all affirmative actions regarding the same. They (Opposition) are such kind of people who did not even provide reservation in Panchayats when they were in power,” said MP Sanjay Kumar Jha.
Notably, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) is holding a state-wide one-day sit-in protest with the demand for a nationwide caste census and the inclusion of the 65 per cent quota increase in Bihar in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution.
Leader of opposition in the state assembly, Tejashwi Yadav, also participated in the protest from the party office on Beerchand Patel Path.
Similar demonstrations are being planned across various districts. Visuals from Patna showed party officials and workers gathered in large numbers at the protest site.
Meanwhile, speaking on RJD’s protest demanding 65% reservation for OBCs, SCs, and STs under Ninth Schedule of the Constitution, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav took on the JDU demanding the party make its stand clear
“I just have a question for the JD(U) – whether they want reservation that was increased by the Mahagathbandhan government to be included in the 9th Schedule (of Constitution) or not?” Yadav told reporters in Patna.
Earlier speaking at the protest rally Tejashwi Yadav said, “BJP wants the son of a garbage collector and the next generation to clean drains his entire life…Those who are beggars should be kept as beggars all their life. This is the mentality of the BJP…All the big socialist leaders, from time to time, talked about castes. The great men who were our leaders, all talked about reservation and talked about those sections which are at the bottom of the society, whether Dalit, tribal or backward. Even today, you will see that discrimination happens in society…Today when we talk of caste census, people say that we are trying to divide society… It should be found out what is the condition of people from different castes… Poverty is our enemy and we should work to remove it.”
