Citing a report on inequality, Lalu claims that the Center is bypassing the census

PATNA: Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad on Sunday triggered a political storm by claiming that the Center does not support the conduct of caste census as OBCs, SCs and STs constitute 85% of the country’s population.

Sharing the World Inequality Lab report, Lalu stated that OBC’s share in national wealth has declined from 17.3% in 2013 to 9% in 2022. He alleged that the number of small and medium enterprises has also been steadily declining as farmers The condition has been deplorable with due to the Centre’s poor policy.

“Since almost 85% of the country’s population is OBC, SC and ST, the BJP does not want to conduct a caste census as it would expose the domination of the affluent in every sector,” he added.

Sharing the report on X, the RJD chief said, “Research has revealed terrifying statistics regarding backward/Dalits and tribals. This study highlights the growing socio-economic inequality in the country.

According to this report, upper castes hold 88.4% of the country’s total wealth, while OBCs hold only 9% and Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes hold only 2.6%. In 2013, the share of OBCs in the country’s wealth was 17.3%, and in 2022 it dropped to only 9%. Agriculture is becoming a loss-making business. Farmers are falling into ruin due to bad government policies.”

The RJD chief further said that for the last 10 years, the Modi government has been attacking and destroying small enterprises of OBC, SC and ST classes. As long as OBCs, SCs, STs and poor upper caste people consider Bhakti, fanaticism and hate rioters from the BJP as their leaders, these numbers will only get worse.

The Bihar government has independently conducted a caste survey in the state.

As per the survey report, EBCs alone constituted 36% of the state’s total population. He added that if we combine ECBs with OBCs, their population would constitute 63.13% of the state’s population.

Based on the caste survey report, the state government later increased the reservation limit from 50% to 65% in government jobs and educational institutions. Additionally, 10% reservation is intended for EWS (economically weaker sections).

Lalu stated that the demand for representation due to the population size in Bihar is slowly gaining momentum.

Share of wealth

Lalu Prasad, leader of the RJD, on the microblogging site 6%. In 2013, the share of OBCs in the country’s wealth was 17.3%, and in 2022 it dropped to only 9%, he added.