Rashtriya Janata Dal president and former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav’s remark about ‘holding the RSS and the BJP by the ear’ to get the Caste census done has triggered a war of words between the leaders of saffron camp and the opposition party.
Prasad’s comment came a day after the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) said it would support Caste census only if the data collected were used for the welfare of the underprivileged and not for political reasons.=
Hitting out at the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the centre over the issue of the caste census, Prasad on September 3 suggested that the opposition will put pressure on the government so intensely that it will be compelled to conduct the Caste census.
“We will hold RSS and BJP by the ear, make them squat and get the caste census done. What authority do they have that they will not conduct the caste census? We will force them so much that they will have to do it. The time has come for the Dalits, backward, tribals and poor to show unity,” Lalu posted on X in Hindi.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) reacted and alleged that Prasad has used the language of a goon, the RJD, in response, defended its leader claiming that the saffron camp is against reservation.
Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary said the BJP is not afraid of threats. “His language is that of a goon. He should stop these. People will give him and his party a befitting reply in the coming assembly polls,” Choudhary told reporters.
The assembly elections in the Bihar are scheduled in 2023.
BJP leader Vijay Kumar Sinha, who is also Bihar Deputy Chief Minister, claimed that Prasad is a ‘curse for Bihar’. “He has tarnished the image of the state. We have taken a pledge that we will run a campaign to free Bihar from those who have made the word Bihari an abuse,“ Sinha said.
Senior BJP MP Sanjay Jaiswal said the caste survey was conducted in Bihar and the saffron party had supported it. “Why doesn’t Lalu Prasad question Congress-ruled states where caste survey has not been done?” he asked.
RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav asserted that what Prasad has said is correct. “The people of BJP and RSS are completely against reservation. This is the reason they don’t want caste census in the country,” said Yadav, Prasad’s son and a former deputy chief minister.