'We have limited resources': Union Minister Giriraj Singh on India's population
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"We have limited resources. Our population is expanding like the mouth of Sursa. The perverse mindset (vikrit mansikta) out of which one person sires 10 children can not be allowed," Singh fumed.
He added that the need of the hour was a stringent law ('kada kanoon') for population control, "applicable across the country and to people of all religious affiliations". "The demand for such a law must be raised, from Parliament to the streets ('sansad se sadak tak')," said the BJP leader.
Bihar CM Nitish Kumar's view on population
The declamation of Singh is in sharp contrast to the view held by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, whose JD(U) is the BJP's largest ally at the national level. Kumar has often disapproved of a legislative route for achieving population stabilisation and cited the state's own experience where fertility rates have shown a decline corresponding to the rise in women's education.
Moreover, political parties have often been of the view that the BJP raises the bogey of population explosion for dog-whistling against Muslims whom it accuses of trying to change the demographics by procreating more. Interestingly, anxieties over "changed demography" has often led "fringe elements" to appeal to Hindus that they should produce more children.
(With PTI inputs)
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