Patna: The Bihar unit of the BJP has supported a caste based census in the all-party meeting on Wednesday, but state president Sanjay Jaiswal has expressed three points of concern over it.
In a Facebook post, Jaiswal pointed out his first concern, saying that the state government should ensure full proof methods for the census so that Rohingya or Bangladeshi Muslims do not include their names and claim citizenship.
Raising the second point, Jaiswal said: “Muslim community is in a majority in Seemanchal area of Bihar. Among Muslims, Sheikhs are considered as upper caste. Hence, the state government should ensure that Sheikhs do not include their names in the category of Shokhore or Kulharia castes and take the benefits. Shikhore and Kulharia are considered as lower caste in Muslim community,” he said.
“As per the Central government data, there are 3,747 castes in our country. Such data was based on the 1931 caste based census. On the basis of the 2011 census, the UPA government had filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court and mentioned 4.30 lakh castes. That census was not in public domain. So the Bihar government should ensure that such a miscalculation does not take place in this caste based census,” Jaiswal said.
