Patna: A day after leading a protest march through the state capital, RJD chief Lalu Prasad on Tuesday called for a Bihar bandh (shutdown) on July 27 to protest the withholding of caste-based census data by the central government.
Lalu Prasad said he would also stage a daylong fast on July 26 to put pressure on the Centre and threatened to call for an indefinite shutdown in the state if the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led central government failed to make public the caste-based census data.
"I and my party will not sit silently; we have to mobilise people against the withholding of the caste-based census data by the Centre," the former Bihar chief minister told media here.
Lalu Prasad on Monday exhorted the people belonging to `Mandal` (the backward classes) to rise and uproot the `kamandal` (anti-backward classes BJP).
He said such a step was required because "the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led central government is anti-poor, anti-backward classes and anti-dDalits".
Lalu Prasad also appealed to all Dalits, other backward classes and Muslims to unite against Prime Minister Narendra Modi`s government.
The Rashtriya Janata Dal chief threatened to launch a bigger movement than the Mandal movement of the 1990s if the Modi government failed to make public the caste-based census data without further delay.