Sakshi Maharaj attacks those who entitled to marry 4 wives

NEW DELHI: In attempting to explain away his offensive comments from yesterday, BJP leader Sakshi Maharaj today ended up being equally if not more offensive against Muslims.The so-called religious leader said today that what he meant by yesterday's comments is that a woman is not a (child-bearing) machine."I said a woman is not a machine. Four wives, 40 children, three divorces, all this is not acceptable," Maharaj said.Yesterday, without naming Muslims, Maharaj said in Uttar Pradesh - in clear violation of the pre-poll model code of conduct -- those entitled to marry four times and have 40 children are responsible for the country's population explosion."The Hindu is not responsible for the population explosion (in India). It is those who keep 4 wives and produce 40 children," he said. "Hindu ghata toh desh banta (If Hindu numbers go down, the country will be divided)," he added.Today, what he said was an amplification of his comments from yesterday."The population has increased, but the amount of land is the same. In fact, I should get an award. All of us four brothers are sanyasis so there's no question of us having children."Maharaj has made offensive comments in the past too. Two years ago, he said Hindu women should have more children to counter the "rise of the Muslim population.""Every Hindu woman must produce at least four children in order to protect the Hindu religion," he said at a gathering of Hindu religious leaders.The Bahujan Samaj Party BSP ) on Saturday called for strict action against Maharaj by the Election Commission "Sakshi Maharaj and many like him within the BJP have started using the language of divisiveness. They want to whip up the communal sentiments. They again want the elections to be held on communal issues," BSP leader Sudhindra Bhadoria told ANI.