How can you ask about caste…what kind of question is this amid the demand for caste census?

New Delhi: This time in the monsoon session, during the discussion on the budget, the issue of caste echoed more than the budget in the last two days. During the discussion on the budget, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi said that this time none of the 20 officers preparing the budget is a Dalit. He said that 20 officers worked to prepare the country's budget but among them there is only one minority, one OBC and no Dalit tribal officer. Along with this, Rahul Gandhi also talked about caste census. Just a day after this statement, on Tuesday, there was a heated argument between BJP and the opposition party (Congress-SP) in Parliament regarding caste. There was a lot of uproar inside the House after a statement by BJP MP Anurag Thakur. Anurag Thakur said that those who do not know their own caste are talking about caste census. However, the way SP chief Akhilesh Yadav intervened in this whole matter was discussed a lot. Akhilesh Yadav said that you cannot ask about caste.

What does it mean you can't ask about caste?
Now after whatever Akhilesh Yadav said in this whole matter, it is natural to have this question in mind that what does it mean that caste cannot be asked. Let us first know how this heated debate starts. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Anurag Thakur on Tuesday hit back at Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi in the Lok Sabha, saying that he should know that LOP (Leader of Opposition) does not mean Leader of Propaganda. While participating in the discussion on the budget, Anurag Thakur said that Rahul Gandhi should not become a reel leader and he should understand that to become a real leader one has to speak the truth.

'If you are demanding caste census, then you will have to write your caste in it too'
Anurag Thakur took a jibe at Rahul Gandhi and said that nowadays some people are obsessed with caste census. Those who do not know their own caste are talking about caste census. As soon as he said this, Congress and other opposition parties started creating ruckus. On this Anurag Thakur quipped that if you are demanding caste census then you will have to write your caste in it too. Amidst the ruckus, Rahul Gandhi said that I will happily take all these abuses because just like Arjuna saw only the eye of a fish in Mahabharata, similarly I have also seen only the eye of a fish. We will conduct caste census.

What is caste, you may ask?
Amidst this entire uproar, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav stood up. Expressing his anger, he told Anurag Thakur that the caste of any member cannot be asked inside the House. How can you ask the caste. Akhilesh Yadav further said that how can you ask the caste. You ask the caste. When the uproar increased, the speaker pacified both the sides. That means caste cannot be asked here.

'I was looked down upon because I had not studied abroad'
In another case, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman took a dig at Trinamool Congress MP Saugata Roy. Nirmala Sitharaman said that Saugata Roy insulted me because I did not study abroad, he talks about respecting the poor. The male chauvinist professor who insults women does not teach in any foreign university himself. You should be ashamed. In fact, while participating in the discussion on the budget, Saugata Roy had said that the budget is not for the common man, but it is the budget of Andhra-Bihar. I do not have any expectations from the Finance Minister (Nirmala Sitharaman) like Dr. Manmohan Singh. Because she is not a PhD from Oxford, not even like Chidambaram, who has obtained a management degree from Harvard.