Union Minister Giriraj Singh Union Minister Giriraj Singh

Union minister Giriraj Singh Wednesday said that if India did not change its population policy and enforce a two-child norm for all religions, “daughters will not be safe and might have to be kept under the veil, like in Pakistan”. The BJP MP from Nawada was speaking at a cultural yatra in Bagaha, West Champaran. The audience comprised several sadhus and RSS workers.

“Hindu ka do beta ho aur Musalmaan ko bhi do hi beta hona chahiye. Hamaari aabadi ghat rahi hai. Bihar mein saat zila aisa hai jahan hamaari jansankhya ghat rahi hai. Jansankhya niyantran ke niyam ko badalna hoga, tabhi hamaari betiyaan surakshit rahengi. Nahi toh hamein bhi Pakistan ki tarah apni betiyon ko parde mein band karna hoga (Hindus should have two sons, Muslims, too, should have two sons. Our population is coming down. Bihar has seven such districts where our population has gone down. Population rules have to be changed, only then will our daughters be safe. Otherwise, like Pakistan, we too will have to keep our daughters under the veil,” said Giriraj, who is Minister of State for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.

He was referring to districts such as Kishanganj and Araria, where Muslim population has been increasing at a faster pace than Hindu population.

Local BJP MP Satish Dubey and prominent RSS leader Nagendraji were also present on the stage.

Telling the audience that they had “lost” Jambudweep and Aaryavrta (ancient names of India), Giriraj said they would now “lose Bharatvarsha” if the population policy was not reworked immediately.

He also appealed to sadhus and saints to “save religion” and said the cultural yatra must continue all year round.

At a rally in Jharkhand in the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Giriraj had said that those criticising Narendra Modi should be “sent to Pakistan”. In April last year, he was caught on camera saying that had Rajiv Gandhi married a “Nigerian” woman instead of the “fair-skinned” Sonia Gandhi, the Congress party would not have accepted her as its leader.

Following Giriraj’s statement Wednesday, RJD national spokesperson Manoj Kumar Jha said, “We believe people like Giriraj should be compulsorily made to undergo a crash course on the science of demography. They must also understand that this civilisation has marched ahead in spite of people like him. With ministers like Giriraj, Prime Minister Narendra Modi does not need the Opposition to expose his party’s sectarian politics.”

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