New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi paid tribute to Mahatma Gandhi on Martyrs’ Day, the day to mark the Mahatma’s assassination in 1948, at the campsite of the ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’, in Araria district in Bihar.He later broke his silence on Nitish Kumar’s flip-flop back into the BJP camp at a public meeting in Purnea. He started with the now well-known joke of Nitish Kumar forgetting his shawl at Raj Bhawan after presenting himself to reconstitute his government with the BJP this time. Gandhi said that the former chief minister of Chhatisgarh, Bhupesh Baghel had just narrated the joke to him. The joke goes that when Kumar turned up to pick up his shawl, the governor asked, “itni jaldi? (back so soon to again change camps?).”The joke got many laughs as Rahul Gandhi underlined that INDIA would continue to stand for backward classes and for social justice in Bihar. The Hindu reports that he said the alliance does not need chief minister Nitish Kumar for the cause. “The ‘Mahagathbandhan’ (grand alliance) will fight for social justice in Bihar; we don’t require Nitish Kumar for that purpose, we don’t require him at all,” the Congress leader is reported as saying.He also said that India “needs a caste-based census to determine the exact population of Dalits, OBCs and others”. Gandhi said, repeating the metaphor of “X-ray of the population”, to determine exactly what ails it.Gandhi said that Nitish Kumar left the alliance due to his inability to stomach the idea of a caste survey and used the BJP as a “backdoor” to exit the situation. “Understand why Nitish Ji got stuck. I told him straight that ‘you will have to conduct caste census in Bihar’. And we (Congress), along with RJD, insisted on Nitish ji conducting the survey. But the BJP got scared. They are opposed to this plan. Nitish ji got stuck and BJP provided him the back door to run away!” Gandhi said at the rally.Gandhi had not spoken on Nitish Kumar for the past two days, when Kumar suddenly resigned and jumped ship, back to the BJP. A little bit of pressure, and he makes a U-turn,” Rahul Gandhi said, before adding, “But why the pressure in the first place? Because our alliance is raising the issues that matter to people.”Rahul Gandhi started his second leg of the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra from Manipur and said that Manipur is experiencing an “atmosphere of civil war”. He said that Prime Minister Modi is yet to visit the state where ethnic violence and instability have continued since May 3 last year, without any respite or serious attempts at reconciliation.The Congress President, Mallikarjun Kharge was also to have been at the rally but inclement weather made it hard for his helicopter to land and Kharge addressed the well-attended public meeting by video, just before Rahul Gandhi spoke.