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CASTE IN FOREFRONT AFTER BIHAR OBC COUNT

The Sunday Guardian

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October 08, 2023

Doubts over the authenticity of the recent caste survey have put a big question mark on its utility.

- RAHUL CHHABRA

In the run-up to Lok Sabha elections, political battle lines seem to be getting cemented around caste with the Bihar government releasing details of its four-month-long caste survey.

And, just like the demand for the revival of the old pension scheme that was tweaked by the NDA government the Congress and its allies in the I.N.D.I.A bloc are seeing an opportunity to force the Narendra Modi government and the BJP on the backfoot by demanding a nationwide caste census. Rahul Gandhi's slogan of “Fitni aabadi utna haq" (entitlements should be proportionate to the size of a caste's population) has made headlines, but his own party leaders in Bihar are afraid that the caste survey data may force the party's upper caste supporters to desert it. Doubts over the authenticity of the survey-which has indicated that Bihar's backward class population stands at 63%-have also put a big question mark on its utility.

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