Religion-based Census will polarise Bihar voters: Cong

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 28

Battle lines drawn, the Congress today accused the ruling BJP of playing a communal card in the election-bound Bihar and said the release of religion-based Census data was not accidental.

Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, while describing the upcoming elections as a watershed event in the Indian politics, said the BJP was using in Bihar the same strategy it had earlier used in Uttar Pradesh for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

“The government’s strategy in Bihar is two-faced as it was in UP during the last General Elections — talk development on the surface and communal polarisation beneath. The release of caste data on religion is not accidental. It is meant to create the “mahaul” (atmospherics) necessary for elections,” Ramesh said while interacting with journalists at the Indian Women Press Corps today. This was the first formal reaction from the Congress on the religion-based caste data which revealed that while the population of Hindus marginally declined during the 2001 and 2011 that of Muslims correspondingly increased over the decade.

The Census data on religion shows Hindus comprise 43.22 per cent of Bihar’s total population of around 10.40 crore, while Muslims make up 16.86 per cent. Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains share the remaining chunk. The Congress fears RSS affiliates like the VHP making noises over the data would polarise communities.

VHP joint general secretary Surendra Jain yesterday termed the decline of Hindus as alarming, saying: “The demographic imbalance of India is challenging its identity and threatening its very existence.” The Congress leaders believe these polarising voices will only get louder as the elections draw nearer. “That will most certainly happen,” Ramesh said, admitting that the Narendra Modi-led NDA government was treating the Bihar polls as a “do-or-die battle”. Ramesh’s reference was to the announcement of a mega economic package for Bihar by the Prime Minister and recent acknowledgment by Union Minister Nitin Gadkari that Bihar “would be a referendum on Modi”.

Ramesh admitted, “Each of the 243 seats in Bihar would be fought bitterly. We are confident that despite the government pumping in money and everything else into these elections, people will go for Nitish Kumar-led grand alliance and Kumar’s personal past performance. If we stop the Modi juggernaut in Bihar as it was done in Delhi, the face of Indian politics will change.”

But the Congress, contesting 40 seats in Bihar, knows the challenge is tough. Party insiders feel Bihar’s 15 per cent upper castes, 13 per cent Dalits, 20 per cent Mahadalits, Kushwahas and Vaishyas could tilt towards the NDA, leaving the JDU-RJD-Congress grand alliance with 11 per cent Yadavs, 16 per cent Muslims and two per cent Kurmis.

Congress leaders from Bihar are already speaking of a slight edge the BJP appears to enjoy among not just Mahadalits and upper castes but among Dalits. The party is equally wary of expelled RJD member Pappu Yadav spoiling Yadav votes and MIM’s Asaduddin Owaisi denting some Muslim votes. The Congress’ hope is the BJP will face challenges in over 100 seats it has never contested alone, being the JDU’s alliance partner in the past.