“They only know how to…”: Tejashwi Yadav lashes out at BJP for opposing to Bihar caste census

Patna (Bihar) [India], August 28 (ANI): After the union government filed an affidavit against the Bihar government's decision to conduct a caste-based survey in the state, Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav took a swipe at the Centre, accusing it of ‘lying and suppressing the truth’.
"They have no knowledge. They only know how to lie and suppress the truth. They have opposed it even in the affidavit... It has been made clear that the BJP does not want it and is opposing it,” Tejashwi Yadav said while talking to ANI.
He further said that the Centre should conduct a caste census across the country if it supports it.
“If they support it, then they should conduct it (caste census) across the country," he added.
The Central government on Monday, in its affidavit said that only it is entitled to conduct census, in its reply to the Supreme Court on the Bihar government’s caste-based survey.
“Census is a statutory process and is governed by the Census Act, 1948. The subject of the census is covered in the Union List under Entry 69 in the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution,” the Office of the Registrar General, Home Ministry, said in a two-page affidavit.
It further said in its penultimate paragraph that “no other body is entitled to conduct the exercise of either census or any action akin to the census”.
The paragraph was later purged in a revised affidavit. The revision, though just of a paragraph, is significant as the Bihar government has argued that its action is not strictly a census but only a survey done for the welfare of its people.
The affidavit said the Centre is committed to taking all affirmative actions for the upliftment of SCs/STs/SEBCs and OBCs in accordance with the Constitution and the applicable law.
The Ministry said the affidavit was only meant to state the position in law before the top court.
Earlier, the Supreme Court had refused to stay the uploading of data collected in the recently concluded Bihar caste-based survey while debunking claims that the Nitish Kumar government had violated the fundamental right to privacy by compelling people to reveal their caste.
However, speaking on the same, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief and former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav said, "BJP and Sangh (RSS) don't want it (caste census). It is a survey."

On the other hand, BJP MP Sushil Modi said that the BJP is in favour of caste census.

"Under the Census Act, only the Center has the right to conduct the census. However, anyone is free to conduct surveys and collect data. BJP was saying that this is a survey and not a census. Patna High Court said the same thing that the State has the right to conduct a survey and not a census... BJP filed the affidavit in the Supreme Court according to the stand they had in Bihar. I hope that the Supreme Court will soon give its judgement in support of caste census like the Bihar High Court. We are in favour of caste census," Modi said.
The decision of a caste census was taken by the Bihar cabinet on June 2 last year, months after the Centre ruled out such an exercise in the census.
The survey was slated to cover an estimated population of 12.70 crores in an estimated 2.58 crore households in 38 districts, which have 534 blocks and 261 urban local bodies and was to be completed by May 31, 2023, but the Patna High Court put a stay on the Nitish Kumar government's decision to conduct the survey based on castes. (ANI)