PatnaUnion Minister Giriraj Singh on Monday advocated a new strict law to control the state. country’s population, which he compared to the ever-increasing mouth of the mythical female demon “Surasa”. On the occasion of World Population Day, the flamboyant BJP leader released a video statement and shared it on Twitter. Singh, who represents the Begusarai Lok Sabha seat in Bihar, lamented that over the past three decades, India lost to China in the pace of economic progress, but overtook its neighbor in population growth.
‘We have limited resources’: Union Minister Giriraj Singh on India’s population
Singh said, “We have limited resources. Our population is growing like the mouth of Sursa. The perverted mentality (distorted mentality) in which one person brings up 10 children cannot be allowed.”
He said that the need of the hour is that a strict law (‘stringent law’) for population control “be applicable throughout the country and to people of all religious affiliations”. “The demand for such a law should be raised from Parliament to the streets (‘Parliament to the road’),” the BJP leader said.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s views on population
Singh’s announcement is in stark contrast to the view of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, whose JD(U) is the BJP’s biggest ally at the national level. Kumar has often rejected a legislative route to achieve population stabilization and cited his own experience in the state where fertility rates have seen a corresponding decline in women’s education.
Furthermore, it has often been the view of political parties that the BJP fancies a population explosion by whistling dogs against Muslims, whom it accuses of trying to change the demography by over-breeding. Interestingly, concerns of “changed demographics” have often appealed to Hindus to have more children.
(with PTI inputs)