Patna: CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury on Monday alleged that the BJP was “unable to digest” the caste survey conducted by the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar, findings of which were released last week.
Rubbishing the BJP’s charge that the survey findings were full of anomalies, Yechury sought to know why the Narendra Modi government failed to conduct a nationwide census of castes in its nine years in power.
“We had always been in favour of the caste survey. We believe the state government has conducted the exercise with full responsibility”, said the CPI(M) leader, whose party supports the Nitish Kumar government from outside.
Yechury, who is in Bihar to address party functions in Darbhanga and Samastipur districts, was responding to queries from journalists in the state capital.
He was asked about the BJP’s charge that many backward classes have been given a raw deal in the survey in which the data has been presented in a manner that suits Bihar’s ruling Mahagathbandhan, especially its largest constituent RJD.
Yechury replied, “The BJP is unable to digest the reality. Moreover, if it was so much concerned about the backward classes, why did it not get a caste census conducted? It has been in power for nine years”.
Replying to another query, he alleged that the arrest of leaders like Aam Aadmi Party MP Sanjay Singh was tantamount to “brazen misuse of an agency like Enforcement Directorate”.
He also alleged that the ED had an “abysmally low conviction rate of less than 0.1 per cent. More than 5,000 cases have been filed. Convictions were in only 23 of these”.
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