Lalu Prasad on Thursday said there would be a "division of power" in the country according to the population shares of the various castes and the principles of social justice after the BJP was overthrown in next year’s general election.
"Jansankhya ek pratishat aur pad chahiye beshi. Jansankhya ke hisab se, samajik nyaya ke hisab se, ab desh ki satta ka batwara hoga aur inko jana padega," Lalu said.
A rough translation: Those who make up just one per cent of the population want a larger share of posts. There will be a division of power in the country on the basis of population shares and social justice, and these people (the BJP) will have to go.
The Rashtriya Janata Dal chief was addressing an event at the Bihar Congress headquarters, held to commemorate the birth anniversary of the state’s first chief minister, Sri Krishna Sinha. The Congress had invited him as the chief guest. Lalu Prasad referred to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s promise to have a caste census conducted across the country if the Opposition bloc INDIA comes to power.
“It is necessary. He (Rahul) has adopted the flag of social justice that we used to hold up. A caste census will automatically wipe them (the BJP) out,” he said.
A caste-based survey that the Bihar government recently conducted has shown the Extremely Backward Classes making up 36.02 per cent of the state's population, the Other Backward Classes 27.13 per cent, the Scheduled Castes 19.65 per cent, the Scheduled Tribes 1.68 per cent, and the general category 15.52 per cent.
Chief minister Nitish Kumar has hinted at revising the reservation volumes in the state in the light of the survey's findings. This has been seen as a masterstroke to counter the BJP by pitting caste identities against the planks of Hindutva and ultra-nationalism.
"Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP and the RSS are worried over the (prospective) caste census as it will automatically finish them off," Lalu Prasad said. “They will not be able to hold their ground in the Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, or in the Lok Sabha elections. They will be finished everywhere.”
It further served as a signal to Nitish’s Janata Dal United (JDU) and Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party (SP), which are seemingly miffed with the Congress, to fall back in line.
