RJD's Manoj Jha: ‘A reluctant govt's agreement to a caste census is not the destination. It is the start. Oppn is alert, will watch it closely'
THE RJD and social justice parties in the Opposition have claimed that the Narendra Modi government's announcement for a caste census is a vindication of their long-standing demand. The RJD, in particular, has been highlighting Bihar's efforts in sustaining the call for caste enumeration, with the state conducting a caste survey and releasing its findings in October 2023 at a time that the RJD was a part of the state government.
RJD Rajya Sabha MP Manoj Kumar Jha talks to The Indian Express about the challenges the survey faced in Bihar, the BJP 's position on the issue over the years, and the road ahead for the Opposition in raising the plank. Excerpts:
What are the political implications of the Centre's announcement of caste enumeration in the next Census?
Jha: There is a term called 'marriage of contradiction'. This decision (on caste census) is that. The fact of the matter is that this political party (the BJP) was always posturing against the idea of caste-based enumeration. They have used derogatory language for it, including the honourable Prime Minister… They ridiculed Lalu ji (Lalu Prasad), Tejashwi (Yadav) ji, Mulayam Singh ji, Sharad Yadav ji. They said that we will divide the country… The fact of the matter is that you need caste-based scientific data in order to address the anomalies in your development plan… of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas… That favourite slogan of the PM is in fact hollow unless you have the (caste) data.
What were the challenges the Bihar government faced in its caste survey?
Jha: The honourable PM and his party were not in favour of it (the caste survey in Bihar). They tried all kinds of sabotage techniques to halt it. However, the Bihar government conducted the survey through its own resources.
The data that was collected showed the dark reality of millions of lives. On the basis of it, certain programmes were envisaged. However, those programmes could not be realised on the ground because suddenly (Bihar CM) Nitish Kumar turned the other way (left the RJD and joined hands with the BJP). But the quantum of reservation was enhanced.
We requested the PM to put that (the implementation of the survey) in Schedule 9 (a Constitutional mandate that makes any law immune to scrutiny by courts). This was not done. Subsequently, we had to move the Supreme Court because the High Court had halted that process of 75% reservation (in the wake of the caste survey). That tells you that this journey had acquired a national stature.
Telangana recently did it (a caste survey), which Mr Rahul Gandhi is talking about. So, this collective voice of the subalterns — the Bahujans — was instrumental in making a party agree (to a caste census)… This is a party (the BJP) that has always been opposed to even caste-based reservation, forget enumeration.
The demand for a caste census has been one of the central planks of the INDIA bloc since the Lok Sabha elections last year. What is the road ahead for the Opposition on the issue?
Jha: Why is the media looking at a reluctant government's agreement to a caste census as the destination? It is the beginning of the journey. We (the Opposition) will be on alert mode. We will see how it is being conducted… We will not allow any kind of mess in the process. Once the data is available, then the real story begins… (which is) looking for greater representation and programmes to minimise income inequality….
Will the caste census announcement have any impact on the forthcoming Bihar polls?
Jha: The idea (of a caste census) was of Bahujan politicians like Lalu ji, Mulayam ji, Sharad Yadav ji. Later on, it was taken up by Tejashwi Yadav, Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav … There is a Bahujan wave in Indian politics. This ownership cannot be robbed by anyone. I hope the government does not have Bihar elections in mind.
*At a press conference Wednesday, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said the government should emulate the Telangana caste survey, calling it very 'different' from Bihar's. How do you view his remarks?
Jha: I do not agree (with Gandhi). I have seen the Bihar survey results. He (Gandhi) could have (made those comments) because it is his government (in Telangana) and he was instrumental in making it happen. But Tejashwi Yadav personally monitored the survey (in Bihar) and it is as scientific and valuable as what Mr Gandhi thinks the survey in Telangana is… These are just talking points in the media. On the ground, it has no traction. The only thing that will matter on the ground is how the data for the caste survey is collected and how we go from there.
How were OBCs enumerated in the Bihar caste survey, since they are categorised differently across states?
Jha: There is a general understanding and the base is the Mandal Commission report. When someone refers to a sub-caste, you have to look at it anthropologically as to which caste the sub-caste belongs to. Generally, people refer to their sub-castes but that has to be located among the major castes. This applies to OBCs as well as Economically Backward Classes (EBCs) and also to the Upper Castes. When someone says their caste is Paswan, (for example), then it will be counted in SCs like other sub-castes like Ravidas, Pasi and others.
When the Centre collects caste data, should it consolidate or separate the state and central OBC lists?
Jha: Ideally, it should be merged. But we must understand that a large majority of the population lives in states. The Centre is an administrative entity, while the habitat entity is states. It has to be a meticulous exercise. In the case of the 2011 Census, they say the data got corrupted… I am saying there should be a greater understanding of anthropological concerns about castes and sub-castes.
In the Bihar caste survey, were general category castes considered a singular bloc?
Jha: It was done separately. If someone said they were Brahmin, one category was general and another more specific one where the person was specified as Brahmin. The same was done for other categories.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hindu
20 minutes ago
- The Hindu
PM Modi lauds India's technological, digital progress in past 11 years
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday (June 12, 2025) hailed India's digital and technological progress stating that the country is making remarkable progress in innovation and application of technology. The Prime Minister highlighted that that the digital progress is also strengthening country's efforts towards becoming self reliant in the technology sector. Taking to his X social media platform PM Modi shared a post by MyGovIndia, which talks about how India could become the next technology powerhouse of the world and the steps taken by the Union Government in the past 11 years in the sector. Leveraging the power of technology has brought innumerable benefits for people. Service delivery and transparency have been greatly boosted. Furthermore, technology has become a means of empowering the lives of the poorest of poor. #11YearsOfDigitalIndiahttps:// — Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 12, 2025 "Powered by the youth of India, we are making remarkable progress in innovation and application of technology. It is also strengthening our efforts to become self-reliant and a global tech powerhouse", PM Modi said. India has recorded a surge of 2500 times in the volume of UPI transaction with data showing that UPI transaction which was at 0.93 crore in April 2017 increased to 1867.70 crore until April is also leading the digital payment revolution wherein more than Rs 260 lakh crore transactions have been processed with Rs 18,600 crore transactions annually. UPI's acceptance in the world has also increased and it is live in seven countries including UAE, Singapore, Nepal, France, Mauritius, Bhutan and Sri Lanka. India also stands as world's cheapest mobile data providers with more than 94 crore broadband connections and more than 120 crore telephone subscribers. A total of 2.18 lakh gram panchayats have been connected through optical fiber network under the Bharat Net scheme and 6.92 lakh km of fiber cable has been laid.T The Union Government has also showcased interest in Artificial Intelligence with three AI Centres of Excellence to be setup in top educational institutions. India is also working over the development of AI models such as BharatGen, Sarvam-1, Chitralekha and Hanooman's Everest 1.0. On june 10, Prime Minister Modi shared an article on the government's commitment in advancing India's digital connectivity over the past 11 years. PM shares an article by Union Minister Scindia Sharing an article by Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, PM Modi said, "Our government has been constantly striving to provide world-class facilities in digital connectivity to the country. In his article, Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia has explained in detail how the success achieved in this in the last 11 years is inspiring us to move forward even faster in this direction. "In his article, Mr. Scindia elaborated on how villages have started telling the story of digital said on X, "In the last 11 years, the historic decisions taken in the telecom sector and the Postal Department, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modiji, have given rise to a digital revolution, connecting not only cities, but also villages, forests and borders."
Indian Express
an hour ago
- Indian Express
Congress's Revanth Reddy has praise for this old RSS hand: Who is ‘Ajatashatru' Bandaru Dattatreya
At an event held last Sunday in Hyderabad to launch Haryana Governor Bandaru Dattatreya's autobiography, 'Prajala kathe, naa atma katha' (The story of people is my life story), Telangana Chief Minister and Congress leader A Revanth Reddy called Dattatreya an 'Ajatashatru' (one who has no enemies), saying he has been a leader who commands bipartisan respect much like former Prime Minister late Atal Bihar Vajpayee did. Similar sentiments were expressed on the occasion by several dignitaries and leaders cutting across party lines, including ex-President Ram Nath Kovind, former Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu and Andhra Pradesh CM and TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu, with Kovind describing Dattatreya as a 'rare leader' who has been a 'friend to all'. The 77-year-old Other Backward Class (OBC) leader, Dattatreya, who hails from Hyderabad, started his public life in 1965 when he joined the RSS, the BJP's ideological fountainhead. He was appointed as an RSS pracharak in 1968. He continued to hold various positions within the Sangh and its affiliated outfits till 1979, when he was Seva Bharati's pramukh, before joining the BJP. 'Dattatreya had been one of the BJP leaders since its inception. In 1980, he was posted as the BJP secretary in undivided Andhra Pradesh,' one of his close aides told The Indian Express. In Hyderabad, Dattatreya was known as a BJP leader who used to attend even the smallest of public functions. 'It was not easy to work as a BJP leader then and get the support of people who belonged to various parties back in the 1980s. He undertook this connect with people like a personal mission and succeeded in it to the surprise of many,' a Congress leader said. Dattatreya held different positions in the Andhra Pradesh BJP, including its general secretary from 1981 to 1989. In 1991, he was elected to the Lok Sabha for the first time from the Secunderabad constituency (in Telangana now). He was re-elected to the Lok Sabha four times from Secunderabad from 1991 to 2014, even though he also suffered losses a few times. 'It was not easy to win over such a long period in Secunderabad as a BJP candidate then. It showed the public trust he enjoyed over the years,' Dattatreya's aide said. The BJP first named Dattatreya as the Andhra Pradesh party unit president in 1996. He again served as the state party chief from 2006 to 2009. Besides, he also played various roles in the party at the central level – from being the party's national secretary to its national executive member and national vice president. He also served as the Union minister of state (MoS) in the governments led by both Vajpayee and Narendra Modi. In the Modi ministry 1.0, he was the MoS (independent charge) of labour and employment from November 2014 to September 2017. During this period he worked closely with various labour unions in the country for the welfare and uplift of workers in both organised and unorganised sectors, his aide said. In his autobiography, Dattatreya states, 'One of the significant strides made during my tenure (as MoS, labour) in 2015 was the substantial increase in minimum wages across both agricultural and non-agricultural sectors.' In 2014, he also served as the chairperson of the parliamentary committee on welfare of the backward classes. A political observer close to Dattatreya told The Indian Express that his elevation in the BJP ranks could be attributed to his proximity to the RSS. 'His rise in the BJP was completely driven by his deep-rooted connection to the RSS. Without the RSS' backing Dattatreya would not have made it to the Union MoS's position'. In his long political innings, Dattatreya has however also faced several controversies. He was booked as one of the prime accused in a case of abetment of suicide of University of Hyderabad (UoH)'s PhD scholar Rohith Vemula. Months before Vemula's death by suicide in January 2016, Dattatreya was accused of having written a letter to then Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani to seek action against some UoH students including Vemula for their alleged 'casteist, extremist and anti-national' activities. Vemula, who identified as a Dalit, had written a suicide note in which he said, 'My birth is my fatal accident', which found resonance across the country as a searing indictment of the country's caste reality. The Hyderabad police however filed a closure report in the case in 2024, claiming that Vemula was not a Dalit and that 'external pressures' did not lead to his suicide. It gave a clean chit to Dattatreya and other accused. Vemula's suicide sparked nationwide protests against the discrimination of Dalit students in educational institutions. Dattatreya had denied any wrongdoing in the matter. 'The BJP did not remove him from his MoS position during this entire episode,' noted a student leader from the UoH. In the Modi government 2.0, Dattatreya was sent to Himachal Pradesh as the Governor. In 2021, he was named the Haryana Governor, a post that he still holds.
Indian Express
an hour ago
- Indian Express
Decode Politics: ‘Bharat Mata', ‘Mother India', ‘Vande Mataram': As another row erupts, what lies beneath
IN THE SPACE of a week, Kerala has seen two rows break out over a portrait of 'Bharat Mata'. First, the LDF state government relocated its World Environment Day celebrations from the Raj Bhavan, claiming that the photo of Bharat Mata on display at the event was 'one used by the RSS'. But, days later, Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar paid tributes to the same image during Goa Day celebrations at the Raj Bhavan. Objecting to the use of the image at Raj Bhavan, CPI leader and Agriculture Minister P Prasad said, 'A seat of a constitutional body should not be using this.' Arlekar, who recently took over as Governor after a long period of fractious relationship between the LDF government and Raj Bhavan, hit back, saying, 'Whatever be the pressure from whichever quarters, there will be no compromise whatsoever on Bharat Mata.' State BJP leader N Hari also attacked the LDF, claiming 'they are afraid to say Bharat Mata… due to vote bank politics'. While the symbolic icon of Bharat Mata, or Mother India, has often been depicted in art, there is no official version of the portrayal. The image used at the Kerala Raj Bhavan, for instance, depicted Bharat Mata holding a saffron flag in front of a relief map of India. The Left objected to this. Another image, used by the CPI for a local party event in the middle of the row incidentally, showed Bharat Mata carrying the Tricolour. As the BJP celebrated the Left's use of the image, the party hastily withdrew the same. In the history of modern Indian art, Bharat Mata has adorned the canvas of only two artists of repute. The first was the product of the Bengal Renaissance, Abanindranath Tagore, who first visualised the Indian nation as the Mother. The second was the modernist M F Husain, whose painting of Bharat Mata was banned and trashed – and he was forced to spend his last years outside his country. The imagery first appeared in the works of artists and writers in Bengal, much before it was used elsewhere in the context of India's national movement for Independence. Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay's 1882 novel Anand Math contained the hymn to the motherland Vande Mataram, which became the mantra of the freedom movement, and the official song of India after Independence. The novel depicts the three faces of Bharat Mata as Goddesses Jagaddhatri, Kali and Durga. Two decades later, in 1905, after partition of Bengal under Lord Curzon, Abanindranath painted his iconic Bharat Mata, a woman in saffron robes, with a serene face and halo around her head, beads and scriptures in her hands. The revolutionary Aurobindo Ghose wrote in a letter to his wife Mrinalini Devi in August that same year: 'I look upon my country as the Mother. I adore her, I worship Her as the Mother. What would a son do if a demon sat on his mother's breast and started sucking her blood?' Mother India retained her symbolic force through the national movement, even though the metaphor often changed with the speaker who employed it. In The Discovery of India, written by him in jail in the 1940s, Jawaharlal Nehru recounted his experience when people greeted him with slogans of 'Bharat Mata ki Jai'. 'Who was this Bharat Mata, Mother India, whose victory they wanted?… Mother India was essentially these millions of people, and victory to her meant victory to these people,' he wrote. The first major enunciation of the Mother India concept came in the writings of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya. 'The foundation of our nationalism is Bharat Mata,' he wrote. 'Remove Mata, Bharat will be reduced to just a piece of land.' However, this was merely a paraphrasing of what Bankim had written nearly a century ago, when he elaborated on the notion of Mother India as a woman having the characteristics of Sujala, Suphala (overflowing with water and laden with fruits) and Dashapraharana Dharini Durga (Goddess Durga with her 10 weapons), Lakshmi and Saraswati. The imagery was also used in popular media and Hindi cinema – the iconic frame of actress Nargis, with a yoke and two babies, was an unforgettable cultural intervention, in 1957's film Mother India. Several historians have pointed out that the Bharat Mata visualised by its pioneers was more a 'Banga Mata', or Mother Bengal, with the deities they invoked being Kali and Durga, often their family deities. In Vande Mataram, Bankim called upon only the 'sapt koti' or seven crore people of Bengal. The first critics of the metaphor too came from among its inventors. Fifteen years after the Partition of Bengal, in August 1920, Aurobindo underlined the limits of the slogan and sought a greater mantra: 'We used the Mantra Bande Mataram with all our heart and soul… (but) the cry of the Mantra began to sink and as it rang feebly, the strength began to fade out of the country… A greater Mantra than Bande Mataram has to come.' The first two paragraphs of Bankim's Vande Mataram were adopted as the national song after Independence. The government did not retain the verses that mentioned either 'sapt koti', or the eulogies to the Goddesses Durga and Lakshmi. The obvious reference to Bengali nationhood was removed. Almost up to Independence, few underlined the religious overtones of the slogan, and it remained an essential mantra of an occupied country, a rallying call for its people. It found little resistance from other communities until 1947, when during the Partition riots, 'Bharat Mata ki Jai' was perceived as a communal slogan, the same as 'Allah-o-Akbar'. But, barring some isolated voices against Vande Matram, Mother India remained a largely benign concept that did not attract controversy. During the Ram Janmabhoomi movement of the late 1980s, however, 'Bharat Mata ki Jai' was used for communal mobilisation. Now Bharat Mata was an aggressive image, carrying swords and other weapons, and sometimes riding a tiger. The Anna Hazare movement of 2011, one of the biggest mass mobilisations of recent decades, which shook the Central government and paved the way for the emergence ultimately of Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party, used the image of Bharat Mata as the rallying point for an anti-corruption crusade. More recently, in February 2023, the Indian Council for Historical Research, an autonomous body under the Ministry of Education, faced 'objections' over a photo of Bharat Mata in its office, alongside pictures of President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In early 2016, after allegedly anti-India slogans were raised at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, leading to a sedition case against its then students' union president Kanhaiya Kumar, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat said that youth should be taught to chant 'Bharat Mata ki Jai'. AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi shot back, saying he would not chant 'Bharat Mata ki Jai' even if a knife were put to his throat, prompting the Shiv Sena to tell Owaisi to 'go to Pakistan'. RSS general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale then referred to Owaisi as 'anti-national' and a 'traitor'. Later, in March 2016, AIMIM MLA Waris Pathan was suspended from the Maharashtra Assembly for refusing to say 'Bharat Mata ki Jai', even as he said he was willing to chant 'Jai Hind'. At the time, the BJP, Congress, Shiv Sena and NCP together backed a resolution to suspend Pathan for the remainder of the Budget Session. However, weeks after the controversy, BJP veteran L K Advani called the row over the slogan 'meaningless', while Bhagwat said nobody should be 'forced' to say 'Bharat Mata ki Jai'. In 2020, in the aftermath of the Delhi riots, former PM Manmohan Singh said the slogan was 'being misused to construct a militant and purely emotional idea of India that excludes millions of residents and citizens' while speaking at the launch of a book titled 'Who is Bharat Mata'.
