The Opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) staged daylong protests across Bihar on Sunday to demand caste census in the country and inclusion of the two Bihar laws, which increased reservation for the backward classes, Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) from 50 per cent to 65 per cent, in the ninth schedule of the Constitution to make them immune to judicial scrutiny.
Several hundred RJD workers marched on the streets and converged at all the 38 district headquarters in the state and demonstrated to press for their demands.
Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly Tejashwi Prasad Yadav and other senior RJD leaders, including state president Jagadanand Singh, staged a sit-in protest at the party headquarters in Patna.
“The BJP is against reservation and wants to end it in the country. Its actions have betrayed this continuously. We will not allow this to happen. Our party will strongly present its views on the enhanced reservation laws. It is the need of the time and our government brought it to provide reservation in proportion to the castes,” Tejashwi said at the dharna.
Tejashwi, who is the youngest son of RJD chief Lalu Prasad, attacked chief minister Nitish Kumar and asserted that he should tell why Bihar’s reservation laws were not being placed in the ninth schedule of the Constitution despite the fact that the Janata Dal United (JDU) was a part of the government at the Centre. He also sought to know why the JDU was silent on the denial of "special category status" to the state.
The RJD has plans to submit a memorandum on its demands, especially on the reservation laws, to President Droupadi Murmu. The two laws were brought when Nitish headed the Mahagathbandhan government in the state.
Meanwhile, Tejashwi is expected to kick off his statewide yatra from Samastipur on September 10 to spread public awareness about the various issues on reservation, caste census and development. This is expected to be the beginning of the RJD’s campaign for the 2025 Assembly election.
The Patna High Court had set aside the Bihar Reservation of Vacancies in Posts and Services (for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes) Amendment Act, 2023 and the Bihar Reservation (in Admission to Educational Institutions) Amendment Act, 2023 as ultra vires and violative of the equality clauses under Articles 14, 15 and 16 of the Constitution in June after hearing a bunch of petitions.
The Bihar government has challenged it in the Supreme Court, which refused to stay the Patna High Court’s judgment but has agreed to hear the petition.