VARANASI: Union minister of state for micro, small and medium enterprises Giriraj Singh on Sunday said here that demographic changes in the country’s population was a growing threat to Hindus and strict laws must be formulated to address the ‘imbalance’.

He also suggested that flouters should be debarred from voting and even proposed legal and financial action.

Singh was here to attend Sanatan Dharm Bachao Sammelan organised by Sri Vedshastranusandhan Kendra at Gandhi Adhyayan Peeth of Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapeeth.

The changes in nation’s demography and population indicated impending threat to Hindus, he said, adding that widening gap in growth rates of different religious groups would cause religious imbalance in the population ratio. “It will pose a threat to the unity, integrity and cultural identity of the country,” he said.

“We should learn from China, which controlled its population by enforcing the policy strictly and transformed into a developed nation,” he added. He further said that population control was a must for speedy and proper development of the country.

“It is sadhus and saints’ responsibility to convince the society about conservation of our ‘sanskritik virasat’ (cultural heritage),” he said and warned that decline in population of Sanatan Dharma followers would create social imbalance in the country.

“I am saying all these things not as a minister or BJP spokesperson but as a Sanatan Dharmi Hindu. I am first a Hindu, then BJP member and minister. I can quit the post of minister and party, but can’t quit my dharma,” Singh said, adding that the declining population of followers of Sanatan Dharma was a matter of concern.

“The geography and history of vast Aryavart are still there but many parts of this Aryavart have no Sanatan dharma followers,” he added. He also advocated a wide discussion on the definition of minority.

Citing examples, he said that population of Hindus had declined in 60 districts of UP and 26 districts of Bihar, while they have turned into minority in five districts of Kerala.

On the issue of intolerance, the minister said that tolerance was in the blood of India, which firmly believes in the philosophy of ‘Vasudhaiv Kutumbakam’ and ‘Sarve Bhavantu Sukhina’. “It is the country’s tolerance that the court sat at night for a terrorist Yakub Memon and thousands of people took part in his funeral,” he said, adding that some people were questioning the country’s tolerance by raising the issue of increasing intolerance but the world accepts India’s tolerance.

