Patna: Caste has once again risen to become an issue of contention in Bihar. In a recent notification issued by the Ministry of Defence, a caste certificate has been listed among the documents necessary for the recruitment of Agniveers under the Agnipath scheme. Following this, the ruling party as well as the Opposition in the state slammed the Centre on Tuesday.
JDU parliamentary board chairman Upendra Kushwaha expressed his surprise over asking for a caste certificate. "I have seen the notification of Agniveer Scheme issued by the Defence Ministry in which a caste certificate has been sought. I was very surprised. If there is no reservation, why is caste certificate being sought? In the notification both caste and religious certificates have been asked for.
I have failed to understand the need for such certificates. I have urged the Defence Minister to come out with a justification because if there is no usage of caste certificate then there is a possibility of misuse," Kushwaha said in Patna.
"If there is any benefit of submitting caste and religious certificates the Defence Minister should explain this to the people to clear the doubts in the mind of job aspirants," he further said. It's not only JDU, even the opposition leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav has levelled serious allegations against the Modi government on the issue. Taking a potshot at the ruling NDA, Yadav shared a screenshot of the notification on his official Twitter handle.
"Do not ask caste from the monks but ask the caste of the soldier. The BJP government of Sangh runs away from the caste-based census but asks caste from the Agniveer brothers. They are asking for caste because the country's biggest casteist organisation will later retrench Agniveers on the basis of caste," Tejashwi tweeted. He further wrote:
"For 75 years post-independence, there was no contractual 'Agnipath' system in the armed forces. There was no discarding of 75% of soldiers after joining the army, but the staunch casteist government of the Sangh will now reject 75% of soldiers on the basis of caste and religion. If there is no reservation in the army, then what is the need for the caste certificate?".
Meanwhile, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has come out with his explanation over the caste certificate row, terming it a rumour. While replying to the question of reporters outside parliament, Singh said, "I just want to make it clear that it is just a rumour. The earlier system, existing before the pre-independence era, is going on. No change has been made into it."
Also read: Tejashwi Yadav slams BJP for asking caste and religion in Agnipath recruitment scheme
When the same question was repeated, Singh lost his cool and reiterated that only the old system is being followed. He also said that there was no need for further explanation on it. However, the political expert challenged the explanation of the defence minister calling it contradictory and supported the stand of both the ruling and opposition.
"Recently Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji was in Patna and he categorically said that his government has changed around 1500 old policies for the smooth functioning of the government. On one hand, they believe in changing the old system so why didn't the government change this pre-independence system. The old system says that soldiers should be recruited for 16 to 17 years, then why only four years?
In defence caste does not matter, only talent matters. So what is the need of the caste certificate? I totally agree with Upendra Kushwaha and Tejashwi Yadav. What is the need to add a caste column in the armed forces recruitment," Patna-based political expert Dr Sanjay Kumar asserted. Notably, despite political differences, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and LoP Tejashwi Yadav had met each other several times on the issue.
Nitish Kumar, earlier this year on June 1, announced after an all-party meeting that Bihar would conduct its own caste census. For this, the state cabinet subsequently approved Rs 500 crore and is set to complete it by February 2023.
