Editorial with Sujit Nair: Is Caste Census: Good or Bad for our Society? | Bihar | Nitish Kumar - video Dailymotion

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Join Our WhatsApp Group: https://linktr.ee/sujitnair  In this editorial episode, Mr. Sujit Nair discusses the recent caste-based census conducted in Bihar. Bihar has become the first state to release data from this survey, revealing some significant findings. According to the report, 36 percent of the population belongs to Extremely Backward Classes, 27.1 percent are from Backward Classes, 19.7 percent are from Scheduled Castes, and 1.7 percent are from Scheduled Tribes, while the general population comprises 15.5 percent. The total population of the state is over 13.1 crore.  The survey also highlights that the Yadav community, to which Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav belongs, is the largest sub-group, constituting 14.27 percent of all OBC categories.  The release of this report is likely to spark a political controversy, with calls for an increase in quotas for OBCs, currently capped at 27 percent.  The data, which comes just months before the 2024 Lok Sabha election, reveals that backward classes make up nearly two-thirds of the population, totaling 63.1 percent.  Chief Minister Nitish Kumar welcomed the data's release on X (formerly Twitter) on Gandhi Jayanti (Mahatma Gandhi's birth anniversary) and announced a meeting of nine parties in the Bihar Assembly to discuss the caste-based census.  Tejashwi Yadav termed the report a ""watershed"" moment and the result of decades of struggle, expressing hope that government policies and intentions would now be guided by this data. His father and party leader, Lalu Prasad Yadav, also commended the release of the caste-based survey.  However, the BJP reacted critically, with Union Minister Giriraj Singh dismissing the report as ""eyewash.""  In August, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had emphasized the survey's potential benefits for all sections of society, including the deprived, and its role in identifying areas in need of development. He also mentioned that the survey had received support from all state parties, including the BJP.  The release of this data coincides with the Supreme Court's ongoing hearings on petitions challenging a Patna High Court judgment that paved the way for this controversial ""caste-based headcount."" The court declined to issue an interim stay unless critics could establish a prima facie case.  The decision to conduct the caste survey was made by the Bihar government in June of the previous year. The Chief Minister clarified that it is not a full census, as initially stated by the central government, but rather a collection of data on economic status and caste for targeted development initiatives.  #Bihar #NitishKumar #CasteCensus #BiharGovernment #SC #ST #OBC #Yadav #TejashwiYadav #RJD #JDU #SupremeCourt #HWNews #SujitNair #ScheduleCaste #ScheduledTribes

Transcript

00:00 Namaskar. Welcome to another episode of Editorial. Today is a very auspicious day.

00:07 Two great men, two great sons of India were born today. One is Mahatma Gandhi and the second is

00:15 Lal Bahadur Shastri. Two great sons of India. Two people I admire a lot and two people I think,

00:20 if some young people are watching this, two people you should read about. A lot of good things,

00:27 a lot of things to learn from their lives. So anyway, on Gandhi Jayanti, Bihar became

00:33 the first state in India to have released a caste based survey data.

00:42 They conducted a caste based survey and they released the data today.

00:46 Now, the country is divided in their opinion. A lot of people say, "Kyun kar rahe ho?"

00:52 "Yaar, we are anyway polarized. We are anyway dividing everything on caste, creed, community.

00:57 Aur kya divide kar rahe ho yaar? Why more? Why divide more on caste and creed and community

01:03 and all of that?" A lot of others say, "No." They say, "Listen, you know what? Division

01:10 and understanding various castes, communities, backward class, other backward class, extremely

01:16 backward class, all this helps A, get them representation in the power, in administration.

01:23 B, it also helps upliftment of these people. So both ways it's important. So, theek hai.

01:30 So, what I am going to do is, I am going to put both the arguments in front of you. Of course,

01:34 as always, you decide what is right and what is wrong and we will take it up from there. Theek

01:40 hai? So, let us get right into the show. So, like I said, Bihar has become the first state

01:49 to release data from caste based survey. And the data looks something like this. 36 percent

01:58 of the population are from extremely backward class in Bihar, 36 percent. 27.1 percent are

02:08 from backward class, 19.7 percent are from scheduled caste and 1.7 percent are from

02:17 scheduled tribe. This is how the caste data of Bihar looks. Now, 15.5 percent are general

02:26 population. Mind you, the total population of the state of Bihar is 13.1 crore. So, this is

02:36 what the math looks. Now, also the largest subgroup accounting for 14.27 percent of all

02:44 OBCs are Yadavs. So, Yadavs are the largest subgroup. Yadav, where Tejaswini Yadav and

02:53 Lalu Prasad Yadav and all belong to. So, this is the data that has come out.

03:00 Now, like I said, a lot of people would ask you, why? Why would you want to talk about this data?

03:06 Why now? Are you going to play politics with this? Are you going to use it against the ruling party

03:12 or against the party in the centre or against the party in the state? Or are you going to polarise

03:17 more? Why do you require data? Now, the fact is, one cannot completely deny that these datas are

03:24 not used to polarise. For instance, this OBC data that has just come through, it is definitely going

03:30 to ensure that there will be a call for more reservation for OBC because currently OBC is

03:37 capped now at 27 percent. The OBC reservation is capped at 27 percent. People may ask for

03:42 more reservation because the OBC numbers, the percentages are very high now. So, this could be

03:49 used for political reasons. The party that can offer more reservation may get power. So, that is,

03:54 it is not entirely wrong when they say that such data are used for political benefits.

04:00 But when you look at it from another perspective, from an administrative perspective and purely from

04:06 an administrative perspective and also from a democratic perspective, these data are important.

04:13 And I will tell you how. You see, the concept of politics and the concept of democracy is

04:19 representation. So, every caste, creed, community, gender, like I told you during the women

04:25 reservation, every caste, creed, community, gender should get equal representation. Equal when I say,

04:31 it is equal to the percentage, their percentage in the society. So, it should be at least close

04:36 to that. So, good representation is imperative in a healthy democracy. Why good representation

04:44 is important? Because if a community is represented well, then the growth of that

04:48 community is imminent. So, that is the principle in which it goes. So, therefore, representation

04:53 is very, very important. And data, such data gives you some kind of a methodology to have

05:00 fair representation in the assembly, stroke Lok Sabha later on and so on and so forth.

05:06 So, that is the first point. Now, representation. Second is when these communities, various

05:12 communities are represented well, then it is also ensure that from the nation s wealth,

05:19 they get a part of it, which means they become part of the nation growth. So, it is not that

05:26 one community may just grow or another community may grow or one caste may grow, another caste may

05:31 grow. If there is participation, if there is some kind of a reservation, if there is some kind of a

05:36 of a methodology where these people are included into the growth story of our nation, then all the

05:43 entire community, entire nation will grow together. And that is precisely why we have a democracy.

05:49 And that is precisely how growth should be. Growth is not about your growth and mine. Growth is

05:54 about, like I always say, growth is about the growth of that last common denominator in our

05:59 country. I will call our country prosperous, developed, growing, great and all, if there is

06:06 not a single person in this country who sleeps empty stomach. Till such time that there is that

06:10 one person who sleeps empty stomach in our country, we should not be calling ourselves

06:14 a developed country or growing and all that. It does no sense. I have made all these statements

06:19 before. I am repeating myself. But the point is at the cost of repeating myself, the point that I am

06:24 trying to make is, therefore, these kinds of representations, these kinds of figures does

06:30 add value to administration, does add value to ensure that various communities are incorporated

06:35 in our parliament and in our assembly, various communities are part of the power, various

06:41 communities are part of the growth story, which includes jobs, which includes education, which

06:45 includes everything. They are part of the growth story and it ensures that the country grows.

06:50 And when the country grows, all the communities grow together. So, A, this is as far as the

06:56 numbers are concerned. This is as far as why it is imperative that we are aware of what these

07:03 numbers are. Now, unfortunately, in our system, in our political system, now this is the other side.

07:09 Unfortunately, in our political system and our polity, our country, we vote, we do not cast our

07:17 vote, we vote for our caste and that's the problem with us. So, when the entire politics is based on

07:23 caste and appeasing one caste, appeasing one community, appeasing one group, then all that,

07:30 all what I said before goes down the drain. All what I said before goes down the drain.

07:35 Because it doesn't work both ways. Neither does the community as a whole gets developed because

07:40 the community remains where it is. Only the people who are into politics and who get power,

07:46 they grow, but the community remains as is because once they are in power, they don't look at,

07:50 look out for their community. So, that is one end of the story. Secondly, it brings about

07:54 imbalance in the society. When you have one community getting more reservation,

08:01 when you have one community getting more attention, when you have one community getting

08:04 more representation in the political system and all that, there develops imbalance.

08:10 So, somewhere down the line, when it is used, when anything good used by politicians whose

08:16 intentions are not good, then the answer is that it may harm the society. And that's the problem.

08:22 That's the problem that we face and that they are going to be facing here also. Now, it's already

08:27 begun. BJP has called it. I watch the, I am sure since Tejaswi Yadav comes from the Yadav community,

08:35 he has a huge support of the Yadav community. He is going to use it to his advantage when it

08:40 comes to, he could use it, I am just saying he could use it to his advantage when it comes to

08:45 votes, when it comes to elections and so on and so forth. So, all of this would happen.

08:51 Finally, with all this, will the extreme backward class get benefited? Will the other backward class

08:59 get benefited? Will the schedule car, schedule tribe get benefited? That's the question we need

09:04 to wait and watch. Last but not the least, before I end this editorial, I would like to talk about

09:08 another segment, which is economically backward class. Economically backward class exists in

09:17 every caste in our country. While a lot of people talk about, a lot of politicians talk about a lot

09:25 of impetus, a lot of help for the economically backward class, somewhere down the line,

09:29 it does not seem to be percolating. And what makes me say that? Because like I always quote,

09:34 the Oxfam research, which says that 1% of the Indian society has 40% of its wealth.

09:40 So, if 1% has 40% of its wealth, that means there are huge amount of economically backward class

09:46 which still exist in our country. What are we going to do for them? What are we going to sit

09:52 and how, when are we going to sit and talk for them? When are we going to do a census for them?

09:56 When are we going to draw a plan for them? When are we going to ensure that that is one thing

10:01 that we as a country, we say, okay, we take this up and we ensure that our economic backward class

10:06 is also uplifted. Now, I will tell you why a politician will not talk about it.

10:10 You see, appeasement is the easiest form of administration, easiest form of administration.

10:17 I will tell you what I mean by that. What I mean is, for instance, in Maharashtra, we see this.

10:21 Close to elections, there are political parties, especially some political parties that will go

10:26 talk about farmers and then give loan mafi. Loan mafi is, they will tell the banks not to take back

10:33 the money from the farmers. Farmers who cannot pay, they need not pay the loans. This happens,

10:38 appeasement, just near to the elections. Just near to the elections, you talk about reservation of a

10:46 particular community, just near the elections. Just near the elections, you say this free,

10:50 that free, this free, that free, the other free. So, these appeasement techniques are the easiest

10:55 to do. I tell you, they are the easiest to do. Because, what is it? End of the day what? They

11:01 will do it for some time. Sometimes they do not do it at all after promising. Sometimes they do it

11:06 and then what they say, what actually happens are two different things. And after some time,

11:12 when it comes to a stage where there is tremendous pressure on the state treasury or the country's

11:16 treasury, they discontinue it. This happens and it is easy and nobody bothers. Our memory is like a

11:22 goldfish. Our memory is very, very short. We forget it and then the party next year again,

11:27 next election again says the same thing, gets their vote. So, that is what happens.

11:31 But you see, if a political party sits in front of you and says that, listen, I am going to ensure

11:38 my economically backward class is developed, then there has to be a robust economic plan.

11:44 There has to be an economic plan. There has to be a business model. There has to be a plan for

11:50 crying out loud that helps to actually ensure that there are more jobs available, there are

11:57 more demands created, the economy boosts, there are more FDIs bought into the country, there are

12:03 more investments put into the country, we promote people to invest more in our country, we ensure

12:10 that we create wealth for people who are investing so that they invest more. When they invest more,

12:15 there is more jobs. When there is more jobs, there are more people who are coming and working.

12:18 When there are more people who are coming and working, then there is more demand. And therefore,

12:23 what really happens is the country as a overall, the country grows.

12:28 And this happens when you have multiple wealth creators. It is not that your wealth creation

12:35 policies are focused on few people or few groups. It is thrown open to all. Everybody is given a

12:42 fair chance to be a wealth creator. They go out there, they create wealth, things become easy for

12:48 them other than having compliance over compliance over compliance over compliance on that person's

12:52 head. You give them a comfortable working environment where they create wealth and more

12:59 and more and more and more and more people create wealth. And if more and more and more people

13:03 create wealth, then that difference between the top, the 1 percent and that who owns the 40 percent

13:10 wealth of this country, that wedge will reduce. And that wedge will reduce, number one, and that

13:17 will also ensure that the country will grow as in totality. Now, that is what will happen if you

13:26 actually go out, if you actually go out and make an election promise where they say that I will

13:31 ensure that I will uplift the economically backward class. Chances are politicians will not do it.

13:37 Because, noona, that is a very difficult proposition.

13:41 That is the point I wanted to make. Till I see you next time, that is tomorrow at 10. Namaskar.

13:47 [Music]

Editorial with Sujit Nair: Is Caste Census: Good or Bad for our Society? | Bihar | Nitish Kumar

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