Sarokaar - Caste and Politics

The central government recently released the socio-economic caste census, albeit sans the caste data. The government says that this is because there were certain issues with the data which would soon be resolved and thereafter will be released.

The opposition on the other hand sees this as deliberate act. Ahead of the Bihar elections, many political leaders have staged a strong protest against the government not releasing the caste data.

With the 25th anniversary of the Mandal Commission’s report coming on Aug 6, we try to understand why the caste census is garnering such high political interest and whether the release of the caste data would actually make any significant headway in championing the cause of the underprivileged.

Guests: Hukumdev Narayan Yadav (MP, BJP) ; K C Tyagi (MP, JD-U) ; Manoj Kumar Jha (National Spokesperson, RJD) ; Vedpratap Vedic (Political Thinker & Sr. Journalist) ; Nandani Sundar (Sociologist)

Anchor: Amrita Rai