Shah non-committal on caste-census

Ranchi: An all-party delegation from Jharkhand led by state chief minister Hemant Soren met Union home minister Amit Shah on Sunday to demand a caste-based census. The delegation, however, did not put up a demand for a separate column for a Sarna religion in the exercise.
Later, the delegation returned empty-handed as Shah indicated that the Centre is not keen to implement the demand and also cited administrative difficulties.
The CM’s delegation included representatives from ruling alliance partners, Congress and RJD along with opposition BJP, Left parties like CPI(ML), CPI and CPM.
The state unit of the BJP, which had earlier refused to be a part of the delegation, took a U-turn and its president, Deepak Prakash, joined the entourage in a bid to keep its vote bank in good humour. Sudesh Mahto, the president of BJP’s NDA ally, Ajsu-Party, could not join the delegation as he reached New Delhi late.
In the meeting, which lasted 30 minutes over tea and ice cream, Soren handed Shah a four-page memorandum advocating the need for the caste census. Terming the Centre’s decision not to conduct it as unfortunate, the memorandum justified the need for the survey, saying that it will help in providing reservation to people of the backward classes and will shed light on the socioeconomic disparities in society.
“Policymakers will be able to draft better welfare blueprints which will help uplift people from the backward sections. It will also help in forming a dedicated commission for socially backward sections, which has been mandated in the Constitution,” the memorandum reads.
After the meeting, Soren said in New Delhi, “We have passed a resolution in the Jharkhand Vidhan Sabha in favour of a caste-based census (on September 9). We shared the state’s sentiments on the issue with the Union home minister.”
Talking to TOI over the phone, Alamgir Alam, the state rural development minister and Congress leader, who was part of the delegation, said, “Shah reiterated that it was difficult and cumbersome to conduct a caste-based census. He did not assure to reconsider the Centre’s stand that it will go ahead with a census without any headcount based on caste.”
Jharkhand Congress president Rajesh Thakur said since the Centre has not met the demands of the delegation, all like-minded parties will huddle in Ranchi and decide the future course of action. “Census is a central subject and the state governments have no role in it. We had requested the Union minister to revisit his government’s stand and we will wait and see what is being done. After the agraha (request), we will take up Satyagraha,” Thakur told TOI.
The role of the delegation, however, raised many eyebrows after it did not mention the demand for a separate column for Sarna in the census, a resolution for which was passed by the Jharkhand Vidhan Sabha in November last year. “The demand was omitted after several political parties in the delegation expressed their reservation to it. The CM will lead another delegation of social organizations on the issue very soon,” a senior member in the JMM leadership told TOI on anonymity.