The 3 PILs were heard in the Delhi High Court on either side of the swearing-in ceremony of the Narendra Modi government.

Three public interest litigations (PILs) have come up before the Delhi High Court around the time the Narendra Modi government was sworn in for the second time last week. The petitions relate to regulation of madrasas, formulation of a uniform civil code and rolling out a strict two-child policy. The three PILs were heard in the Delhi High Court on either side of the swearing-in ceremony of the Narendra Modi government on May 30.

The three issues, on which the high court has sought responses from the government and also other concerned institutions, directly or indirectly form part of the BJP agenda of Hindutva.

Regulation of madrasas

Madrasas have been the target of many BJP leaders in the past. One of them, Sakshi Maharaj once described madrasas as the breeding ground for terrorism. In Maharashtra, the BJP government had derecognised madrasas after coming to power in 2014.

Recently, Uttar Pradesh Shia Waqf Board chief Waseem Rizvi, considered a supporter of the BJP, wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking him to shut down madrasas in the state. The BJP, officially, has not called for shutting down madrasas but maintains that these Islamic seminaries should be brought under tighter regulation and reformed to impart modern education alongside religious instructions.

Now, a PIL is before the Delhi High Court seeking regulation of madrasas, maktabas and gurukuls. The petition has been filed by Right to Information (RTI) activist Sunil Saraogi and Congress MLA Akhruzzaman.

They have argued that the academic syllabus followed in these institutions is "stuck in the 18th century with the Holy Quran, Urdu and Persian being the only subjects".

The petitioners claim that there are 30,000 such educational institutions in the country. Around 15 lakh students are enrolled there. In Delhi itself, they said, around 3.6 lakh students are studying in 3,000 madrasas.

The court has sought response from the Union HRD ministry on the matter before it hears the case on July 8. Notice was sent to the ministry on May 29.

Two-child policy

India is a signatory to the International Conference on Population and Development Declaration, which was signed in 1994. The declaration supports reproductive rights of couples to decide the number and spacing of children.

This is said to be the reason why any central government, including those led by the BJP, has not implemented two-child policy. A national population policy drafted under Atal Bihari Vajpayee government but it did not impose a two-child policy.

Many BJP MPs have demanded implementation of the two-child policy. BJP's Raghav Lakhanpal Sharma had moved a private resolution in the Lok Sabha during the 2017 winter session of Parliament seeking amendment to the National Population Policy of 2000 to make two-child norm mandatory.

Another BJP leader Prahlad Patel, re-elected in the Lok Sabha election recently, introduced a private member bill in the Lok Sabha in 2016 for population control.

Titled, Population Control Bill 2016, it stated, "No person shall procreate more than two living children after a period of one year from the commencement of this Act." The bill was never put to vote.

There are some BJP leaders including Sakshi Maharaj, who blamed Muslims for rising population of India, and advocated that Hindus should have four-five children till population control law is uniformly implemented.

As recently as last week, yoga guru Ramdev -- considered close to political ideology of the BJP -- demanded that a law should be legislated to deny voting rights to the third child of a couple with a futuristic policy for next 50 years.

Now, a PIL has been filed by Ashwini Upadhyay, a BJP leader, seeking a two-child policy to be set as pre-condition for government jobs, aids and subsidies. He claims that India's real population is 152 crores as around 20 crore people have not enrolled for Aadhaar.

Upadhyay has cited recommendations of Justice Venkatchaliah Commission to boost his case. National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution (NCRWC) was constituted under Justice Venkatchaliah by Vajpayee government in 2000. It recommended a two-child policy among other things.

On May 29, the Delhi High Court sought Centre's response on the matter.

Uniform civil code

Uniform civil code is one of the three basic agenda of the BJP -- removal of Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir and construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya being the other two. Uniform civil code is prescribed in the directive principles of state policy of the Constitution.

While there is a common criminal code for criminal cases, civil disputes related to marriage and inheritance are settled by personal laws of different religious communities.

On May 31 -- a day Modi government was sworn in, notice was issued to the Centre and the Law Commission on a petition by BJP leader Ashwini Upadhyay, who has sought direction to the Modi government for setting up a judicial commission for drafting uniform civil code.

The petition has opposed a separate Muslim personal law saying that several Islamic countries like Turkey and Egypt have done away with that. It has cited the Supreme Court's observation in Sarla Mudgal case of 1995 to support the argument.

The Supreme Court had then said that personal law can be superseded by a uniform civil code.

Though the courts in the past have refrained from issuing direction to the government for formulation of a policy or enacting a law, the three PILs are in tune with the BJP's political campaigns.