RSS for persuasion to control population

New Delhi: As a religion-based Census showed growth of Muslims was faster than Hindus, RSS on Friday said it will adopt a policy of persuasion through education to control population and quoted the 'Quran' to claim it favours small families for those who can't afford to raise big ones.

The RSS also said that it is an favour of the current reservation policy but stressed that it should not be based on religion as it will be against the spirit of Constitution.

RSS said the issue of population control needs to be made religion-neutral and its affiliates will persuade communities including Muslims to strive for smaller families.

"We want persuasion through education. Our members of the Muslim Rashtriya Manch have made studies and found quotations from the Quran, where it has been stated that if you are unable to rear your family, its size should be kept small and should be limited to what you can raise.

"We feel it is a sage advice. It is a correct advice. This is the correct advice for every section of society. There is no other policy other than persuasion and we don't want to repeat the Emergency days when things were done by force. Persuasion is the right way to do it," RSS's Delhi unit joint chief Alok Kumar told reporters.

On the issue of reservation, he said, its aim was to lift such communities and sections that were under-privileged.

"We are in favour of the current reservation. But we don't consider reservation should be religion based and not consider it as per the Constitution," he said.

He said population policy should be religion-neutral, but steps need to be taken to check the imbalances.

"I agree that population policy should remain religion-neutral. But where it has not been accepted, we feel persuasion efforts should be increased there. I want to re-emphasise that we have not raised any questions on the religion-neutral policy," he said.

"We feel there is a need to make all sections, especially the low-earning ones, understand that small family is for their good," he said, adding that the Sangh will work on this and hoped the government will agree to its demands in taking effective steps to control population and remove imbalances.

On Minorities, he said the views of RSS are very clear as it feels that all citizens of the country enjoy equal fundamental rights.

He said during the three-day meet at Ranchi recently, RSS called for control on population and remove the imbalances created due to increase in population of certain sections.

"Sangh is urging the governments to stop infiltration from borders, governments are working and society should be aware," he said.

He felt that infiltrators who cannot be pushed back immediately, their voting rights should be revoked so that they do not become votebanks.

The RSS leader said the country's efforts for population control are yielding good results, but has created an imbalance as per the 2011 Census.

Whereas in 1951 the Muslim population was 9.8 per cent, it has increased to over 14 per cent in 2011, he said, adding that there has also been an increase in Christian population.

"We feel there are three reasons for it - infiltration from Bangladesh, conversion and inability to get population control measures accepted by all sections of society," Kumar claimed.

He added that, "We have demanded from the government that National population policy be made again and effective for all to accept it. We have also demanded that a national citizens register be made... We have also asked the government for taking away the voting rights of infiltrators and give them work permits instead."

Kumar said, "We feel there is need to make all sections of the country understand, including those where population is increasing rapidly, that in low-earning families a small family is in their favour."

In coming days, he said the Sangh will carry out 'Jan Jagran' work and also ask society to create awareness and will expect the government to take action on our demands.

Talking about the Dadri incident, he said, "Something very unfortunate happened at Dadri and there should be a proper inquiry and the guilty should be punished."

Claiming that he was not playing a blame game, the RSS leader cited examples of all incidents of hate saying they took place in Karnataka, where there is a Congress government, and Uttar Pradesh, where the Samajwadi Party is ruling while during the Dhabolkar murder, it was a Congress government both at the Centre and in Maharashtra.

"Instead of a blame game, we should understand that it is collective responsibility of the entire country that all its citizens should feel secure and it is the responsibility of all political parties to create a conducive atmosphere that all should feel secure and no one should try to put one community against another to score political points," he said.

Commenting on RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's remarks that only petty-minded people divide the society, he said, "Bhagwatji has rightly said that Bharat's strength is the celebration of diversity."

Talking about the Punjab incidents of sacrilege, Kumar said it seems a conspiracy to disturb the peaceful atmosphere in the state and some external forces are behind it and has asked the Punjab government to identify the culprits and punish them.