While the BJP went back to the drawing board to recraft its political and governance outreach and regained momentum by notching up surprisingly big wins in a string of assembly polls, the burst of fresh optimism in the main opposition Congress and other INDIA bloc parties fizzled out.
'BJP leaders ask you not to learn English. We want the tribal youth to learn Chhattisgarhi, English as well as Hindi'
'They want to keep the pot boiling all the time.' 'The BJP wants to set a political narrative that the Gandhis are doing wrong things.'
If he cannot do it this term by using his bureaucracy and experts from different fields, it will be a tragedy, asserts Ramesh Menon.
'If the BJP had its way, it would sideline him in favour of someone else. But that's not feasible. There is no vote catcher in Bihar for the BJP.'
As several political parties make a pitch for conducting caste-based census, the Union Cabinet is set to discuss the vexed issue on Thursday.
The entire census and NPR exercise is likely to cost the government over Rs 12,000 crore, the officials said.
Yadav also pressed for the caste census which, he said, would be a major issue in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The interim budget 2024-24 on Thursday allocated Rs 1,277.80 crore for census, a significant reduction from 2021-22 when Rs 3,768 crore was allocated and an indication that the exercise may not be carried out even after three years of delay.
He claimed that out of 90 secretaries of the government of India, only three are from the Other Backward Classes and control only five per cent of the Budget, which he said was an "insult" to the backward classes.
Collecting caste-based data will be a major challenge, but it would have to be delinked from the census, to prevent respondents from misrepresenting facts, says Amitabh Kundu
A head count to identify the poor, including their caste and religion, was on Thursday approved by the government, which aims at ensuring that the benefits of the targeted subsidy programme reach them. A meeting of the Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, gave its nod for conducting a census in rural and urban areas to identify those living below poverty line. The enumeration on the basis of caste and religion would be part of the census.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday criticized the Waqf (Amendment) Act, calling it anti-constitutional and an attack on freedom of religion. He warned that the BJP-RSS will soon target the rights of other minorities, such as Christians and Sikhs. Gandhi also accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of succumbing to pressure from US President Donald Trump on the imposition of tariffs, citing a recent meeting between the two leaders. He also questioned PM Modi's recent meeting with Bangladeshi leader Mohammad Yunus, who has been critical of India's policies. Gandhi further advocated for a caste census in India, stating that Congress aims to break the barrier of 50% reservation.
"There are differing views (in the Cabinet), but that does not mean divisions," Law Minister M Veerappa Moily said when asked about the lack of consensus at the Cabinet meeting on Tuesday on conducting caste-based census.
The speculation about the likely cabinet reshuffle in Maharashtra strengthened on Saturday, with senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule stressing that Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis' discretion is supreme among allies.
Reports of stopping of trains and road blocks are coming in from Patna following the bandh called by the Rashtriya Janata Dal in Bihar against withholding of the caste-based census data by the central government.
Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad and Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav on Friday took exception to the way the national census was being carried out and demanded that it be held on the basis of caste, to ascertain the number of people belonging to backward classes.Raising the issue in the Lok Sabha during Zero Hour, Prasad said there was a 'huge conspiracy' behind the way the current national census was being carried out.
On May 11 we launched our campaign against caste in census 2011 and responses from readers have been pouring in. While some merely clicked the 'I am against the caste census' button, others were more vocal. We present what our readers had to say.
Gandhi claimed that Dalits, tribals, and Other Backward Classes were made bonded labourers and their participation was lacking in big companies, hospitals, schools, colleges and courts.
Ahead of the assembly polls in Rajasthan, the Congress government on Saturday night issued an order for the conduct of a caste survey in the state.
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra accuses the NDA of plotting to steal the Bihar assembly elections, alleging collusion with the Election Commission and voter roll manipulation.
Union ministers Prahlad Joshi and Dharmendra Pradhan alleged that Gandhi has been spreading lies on this issue.
Union Minister Farooq Abdullah on Wednesday said the debate in the Union Cabinet over the issue of caste-based census was about the next census and not the ongoing exercise.
On May 11 we launched our campaign against caste in census 2011 and responses from readers have been pouring in. While some merely clicked the 'I am against the caste census' button, others were more vocal. We present what our readers had to say.
Terming Pakistan as a 'failed state', National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah Thursday said relations between New Delhi and Islamabad would never improve until a peoples' government is elected in the neighbouring country.
Hearing a bunch of petitions, a division bench of Chief Justice K Vinod Chandran and Justice Madhuresh Prasad directed the government to immediately stop the caste-based survey, and ensure that the data already collected are secured and not shared with anybody till final orders are passed.
The Supreme Court on Thursday declined to overturn the Patna high court's interim order suspending the Bihar government's caste survey.
Professor P Radhakrishnan is a social scientist talks about the dangers of including caste in the census.
'Earlier, we used to talk about a deficit economy. There is a deficit in democracy' 'If you read superficially Gandhi and Ambedkar and Nehru, some misconceptions and misunderstanding come to mind, as if they were at loggerheads and they differed radically in their views' 'India is one nation. There is only one citizenship. No citizenship for South India and no citizenship for North India and another for the Northeast'
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad has opposed caste-based census, saying it would lead to caste based discrimination and strengthen casteist forces.
The Deepa Thoon controversy, if not allowed to die a natural death, could take the election focus away from the anti-incumbency impacting the DMK and into the secular space. Stalin would love to have it that way, all over again, after the three past elections, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
The socio-economic and caste census 2011 painted a grim picture of rural India, indicating that one out of three families living in villages is landless and depends on manual labour for livelihood.
'We have 38 Dalits who are MLAs and ministers. But that does not mean the Dalits of Bihar are prospering.'
With most parties pushing for a caste-based census, the government does not seem to be averse to such an exercise during the process to enumerate the country's populace that began recently.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday assured his government will continue the Ladki Bahin Yojana and fulfil Mahayuti's pre-poll promise of hiking the monthly stipend under the scheme to Rs 2,100 from Rs 1,500 now to eligible women.
Sources within the INDIA bloc said appointing Nitish Kumar as convenor would lend credibility to the INDIA bloc's demand for conducting a nationwide caste census.
Bowing to demands by several political parties, government on Tuesday said it has decided to include caste in census and the formality of endorsing it is expected at the next Cabinet meeting.
The NSSO had enumerated 79,306 households in rural areas and 45,374 in urban regions.
The Supreme Court, by a majority view of 3:2, upheld the validity of the 103rd Constitution amendment providing 10 per cent reservation to people belonging to economically weaker sections (EWS) in admissions and government jobs.
The Madras high court on Thursday issued a fresh direction to the Centre to conduct caste-wise census in the country. Allowing a PIL by lawyer R Krishnamoorthy, a division bench on Wednesday directed the Census commissioner to take all steps to hold caste-wise enumeration. The bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Elipe Dharma Rao and Justice T S Sivagnanam said the relief sought by the petitioner had already been answered in the affirmative by the court in an earlier verdict
