New Delhi: Union home minister Amit Shah said a day ago on December 10, that the Union government “never had any intention of creating hurdles in a caste-based survey”.According to the news agency PTI, Shah, while chairing the 26th meeting of the Eastern Zonal Council at Patna, said the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party had supported the idea of a caste-based survey in Bihar when it was in power in the state.Shah claimed “there were some issues” with the caste-based survey.“The central government never had any intention of creating hurdles in the caste-based survey. When the BJP was in power in Bihar, it supported the caste-based survey. The governor also approved the bill,” he said, according to PTI.In late August, the Union government had filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court on the Bihar caste survey, noting, controversially, that, “No other body under the Constitution or otherwise is entitled to conduct the exercise of either census or any action akin to census.”Later, on the same day, it changed the paragraph in a fresh affidavit, claiming this one line had “inadvertently crept in”. However, the Union government also held that the Census Act of 1948 empowers only the Union government to conduct the Census.Bihar’s ruling coalition of Janata Dal (United) and Rashtriya Janata Dal had been at loggerheads with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Union government, which is largely understood to be against a Caste Census nationally at this point. Bihar eventually finished the state caste survey, and tabled the report in the assembly. Similar surveys are being conducted in Odisha and Jharkhand.The Union home minister’s comments may be construed as defensive in the light of the government’s earlier stance that it is the sole authority which can conduct such an exercise.