RJD president Lalu Prasad on Monday charged critics of the caste census with being against the humanistic principles of social, economic and political equality and proportionate representation.

The former chief minister of Bihar, one of the tallest leaders to have emerged from the Mandal wave of the 1990s, made the declamation in a social media post in Hindi.

The remarks came in the backdrop of the caste survey conducted in the state, ruled by his adversary-turned-ally Nitish Kumar, in whose government Lalu’s son Tejashwi Yadav is the deputy chief minister.

Although the RJD supremo took no names, his outbursts may be seen as a veiled attack on the BJP.

The survey, which has revealed that OBCs and EBCs are a whopping 63 per cent of the population, was ordered by the state government after the Centre made it clear that headcount of castes other than SCs and STs will not be held as part of the census.

However, insisting that a caste survey was needed, Lalu claimed that those opposed to it “do not have an iota of a sense of justice” and “wish to maintain their caste supremacy, from birth till death, by eating into the rights of others”.

He added, cryptically, “cancer cannot be treated with a pill meant for a headache”.

Both RJD and chief minister Nitish Kumar’s JDU are a part of the INDIA coalition. The alliance has adopted a resolution stating that if voted to power, it will hold a census of all castes.