JDU MPs led by JD(U) national president and leader of parliamentary party in Lok Sabha Rajiv Ranjan alias Lalan Singh on Monday met Home Minister Amit Shah and demanded a caste-based census in the country. In this regard, a signed memorandum of 16 JDU MPs was also handed over to the Home Minister. He said that by conducting caste census, the central government would also be facilitated in making policy.
JDU MPs had sought time to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi in this regard, but news came from there to meet the Home Minister and submit a memorandum. JD(U) MPs led by Lalan Singh, who went to meet the Home Minister, included Chandeshwar Chandravanshi, Ramnath Thakur, Santosh Kushwaha, Sunil Kumar Pintu, Alok Kumar Suman, Kavita Singh, Kaushalendra Kumar, Dinesh Chandra Yadav, Dular Chandra Goswami, Dileshwar Kamat, Vijay Kumar etc.
After the meeting, Lalan Singh told that Home Minister Shah agreed with their arguments but also spoke of some counter-points that needed to be addressed. JDU MPs confirmed that they were ready for discussion whenever called upon to do so.
JDU MPs have said in the memorandum submitted to the Home Minister that in the monsoon session of Parliament, it was told by the Central Government that the 2021 census will not be caste based. They said that this information was disappointing and that they were all shocked and saddened by this information, because the central government is known for the welfare of the backward and downtrodden.
Further, they stated that today, most of the people of the country support the caste based census. Until the actual number of backward classes is not known, then even schemes for their benefit could not be made. Apart from SCs and STs, there are other weaker sections whose actual number will be known only after caste based census.
Only then will it help in making programs for the upliftment of all classes. It has also been mentioned in the memorandum to send a unanimous resolution passed twice by the Bihar Legislature to the Central Government.
After meeting the Home Minister, JDU National President Lalan Singh told the media that caste-based census has been their demand since the beginning. The resolution passed unanimously by the Bihar Legislature twice in the year 2019 and 2020 was sent to the Central Government. Parties like RJD, JDU, BJP which have been involved in this said that the decision had to be taken by the Central Government and JDU has conveyed its demands.
Lalan Singh said that caste based census has been done once in 1931, after which it has not been conducted since. Now, if the different claims of the castes regarding their numbers are taken into account, then the population of India would work out to be three times as opposed to the recorded one.
Therefore caste census is necessary for real time information as well. In response to a question, Lalan Singh said that he does not know what the leaders of BJP are saying today but the BJP also lent its support to the resolutions passed by the Bihar Legislature regarding the caste census twice.
Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav has said that RJD will stage a sit-in at all the district headquarters of the state on August 7, 2021 on the occasion of Mandal Diwas demanding to conduct the caste census, filling up lakhs of backlog vacancies from the reserved quota and implementing all the remaining recommendations of the Mandal Commission.
शनिवार, दिनांक- 7 अगस्त, मंडल दिवस के अवसर पर बिहार के सभी जिला मुख्यालयों में @RJDforIndia की ओर से निम्न माँगों को लेकर विशाल धरना-प्रदर्शन होगा:- ⤵️
👉 जातीय जनगणना कराने
👉 आरक्षित कोटे से बैकलॉग के लाखों रिक्त पद भरने
👉 मंडल आयोग की शेष सभी अनुशंसाएं लागू करने pic.twitter.com/0Feo0GUIkv— Tejashwi Yadav (@yadavtejashwi) August 3, 2021
Tejashwi Yadav has also tagged the letter of the party’s state general secretary Alok Mehta with this tweet, which has been sent to all the district units. It has been said in the letter that on 7 August 1990, the Janata Dal government in the country under the leadership of the then Prime Minister VP Singh implemented the recommendations of the Mandal Commission.
The massive support, efforts and contribution of RJD National President Lalu Prasad paved the way for the “Bahujan Samaj” of the country to join the mainstream. Mr Mehta has written that on the call of Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav and on the instructions of the party’s state president Jagdanand Singh, it has been decided to demonstrate and submit a memorandum at all the district headquarters on 7th August.