Caste survey was ill-planned, Bihar govt didn't consult opposition parties: Chirag Paswan

PATNA: Days after the Patna high court put an interim stay on caste survey in the state, LJP (Ram Vilas) president Chirag Paswan on Saturday questioned the intention of chief minister Nitish Kumar in holding the exercise. Chirag also criticized the state government over the way it prepared the draft of the exercise without consulting the parties which supported him on the issue.
"If the state government had good intention, it would have planned the caste survey properly after holding an all-party meeting and taking suggestions from all parties," Chirag told reporters here."The problem with Nitish is that he acts as a single-man army. It's nothing but 'dikhawe ki rajniti' (politics of exposition)," the Jamui MP said.
Chirag said they had apprehensions right since the exercise for caste survey began. "We were totally unaware about what was going on and what process was being followed. Everyone remained in the dark as the government didn't hold any all-party meeting or tried to consult us for our suggestions. The result was that the entire plan got so weak that the government couldn't defend it before the court," he said.
Meanwhile, senior RJD leader and former assembly Speaker Uday Narayan Chaudhary said the RJD was committed to conducting the caste survey at any cost.
"We have been constantly trying for it since 1990. It was RJD which implemented the Mandal Commission recommendations and even opposed L K Advani who tried to prevent it with his Hindutva agenda. We won't leave any stone unturned to hold caste survey in the state," Chaudhary said.