Merit is the biggest myth

INTERVIEW - Manoj Jha, RJD leader and Rajya Sabha MP

- SONI MISHRA

RJD leader Manoj Jha says the caste survey in Bihar will form the basis of future affirmative action in the state. In an exclusive interview with THE WEEK, he says if the opposition alliance wins the election, it will replicate the exercise nationally. In his view, the ongoing debate around merit in the country is farcical. Excerpts:

Why do we need a caste census?

The last caste census was carried out in 1931. After that, partition happened, but the data was not revised. We had the first backward castes commission— the Kaka Kalelkar Commission—in 1953, which after doing a lot of work, discarded its own report. Then came the Mandal Commission, which after a lot of anthropological work and extrapolation of data from 1931, derived a figure of 52 per cent OBCs and recommended a reservation of 27 per cent for them. The backward caste communities feel they need representation based on contemporary data.

Will caste census be the main election plank for the opposition?

If we win the election, we will do it. If we don’t, we will still stick to it. So this is not an electoral issue for us. It is about commitment to constitutional values, to the subalterns. Beyond political representation, has there been a change in institutional representation? No. Look at the judiciary or the bureaucracy.

A caste survey has been conducted in Bihar.