Ministers Chirag Paswan, Jitan Manjhi Clash Over Quota, Demand Resignations

Union ministers Chirag Paswan and Jitan Ram Manjhi on Saturday sparred over a separate sub-category for the most deprived Dalit sections, with the LJP (Ram Vilas) chief opposing it as divisive and the former Bihar chief minister arguing it would benefit the community.

Asked by reporters to comment on the remarks by Manjhi and his son Santosh Kumar Suman, a minister in Bihar, favouring the sub-quota, Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) chief Chirag Paswan said that it would "create a schism within the community".

"Let them support the concept of creamy layer and give up their respective posts," the MP from Hajipur said.

Notably, Paswan's stance is in line with that of his late father Ram Vilas Paswan, who had fiercely opposed a separate "Mahadalit" category introduced in the state more than a decade ago by the then chief minister Nitish Kumar.

Manjhi, who belongs to the Musahar community, has been of the view that the Paswan family's opposition to targeted welfare of the marginalised sections among Dalits was guided by their "attempts to maintain Dusadh dominance".

When Manjhi's attention was drawn to Chirag Paswan's latest retort, the octogenarian snapped, "It is not us, but Chirag Paswan who should resign as he is unable to understand the point Santosh and I have been making in the broader interests of Dalits..

"It is a fact that among the Dalits, there are castes which are relatively more vulnerable and these deserve targeted welfare which can happen after introducing a sub-category. I wonder where the question of creamy layer arises," the Gaya MP said.

Santosh Kumar Suman, who heads the Hindustani Awam Morcha founded by his father, also came out with a flurry of angry posts on X, targeting Paswan, whom he did not mention by name but referred to as "younger brother".

"My younger brother has a bigger party, with more numbers (in the Parliament and the state legislature). Let him take the lead, and I shall resign alongside. But he must understand I am speaking neither against quotas nor in favour of introducing the creamy layer," he said.

"A quota within quota is poles apart from creamy layer. Musahar, Bhuia, Nat, Dom... these end up facing discrimination even among the Scheduled Castes... within SC/ST community, no one should engage in a conversation with a feudal mindset..

Meanwhile, the JD(U), which is the second-largest constituent of the NDA in Bihar after the BJP, sought to put a lid on the controversy.

"Reservations were introduced through the Constitution by Ambedkar. Now, there must not be any dispute over quotas," said JD(U) legislature party leader and state minister Shrawon Kumar.

Notably, both Paswan and Manjhi found themselves on the same page when their responses were sought to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's fulminations against alleged "purification" of a temple after the visit of party president Mallikarjun Kharge, who is a Dalit.

"They (Congress) have ruled the country for so long. If such social inequality continues, they have no moral right to complain. Rather, they should share the blame. At the same time, Dalits must remain united so that they remain strong enough to fight for their rights," said Paswan.

Manjhi reminded Congress of late Jagjivan Ram, who "rose to become the Deputy Prime Minister, yet, when he once visited the Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi, it was washed with Gangajal thereafter".

The 82-year-old was apparently referring to an incident of 1978, when Jagjivan Ram was with the Janata Party, which had unseated the Congress from power a year ago.

Ram, who was formerly with the Congress, had been in Varanasi to unveil a statue of Sampurnanand, an upper-caste leader who had been the longest-serving chief minister of Uttar Pradesh until the record was broken by Yogi Adityanath.

The statue of Sampurnanand was said to have been washed by traditionalists who held that it had been "polluted" by the touch of Ram, arguably the tallest Dalit leader ever from Bihar.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)