Maharashtra government has warned that it would strongly oppose any attempts by the Centre to impose a two-child norm in the State.
Maharashtra’s Minority Affairs Minister Nawab Malik launched a scathing attack on Saturday against Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat on his statement favouring a ‘two-child policy’ for the country. The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader said Maharashtra government will also legally fight a two-child norm.
Maharashtra already has several population control regulations in place and does not need a ‘forceful vasectomy’ policy for controlling population, the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) leader said.
“Mohan Bhagwatji wants a two-child law and can have his view. He may not be aware that Maharashtra already has several laws on this (population control), as do many other States. Still, if Bhagwatji wants to forcefully do vasectomies then let Modiji make such a law and we will see,” Mr. Malik said
The Minister also raked up, for context, the ‘Emergency era’ of 1976 when Congress leader Sanjay Gandhi had launched a compulsory sterilisation programme to check population growth. The NCP leader said the RSS must not forget those days and how the previous attempt to forcefully implement the policy ended up in the dumps. “We saw in past what happened with this policy when implemented during the Emergency. Let the RSS or the government take the step and see its repercussions once again,” he cautioned.
Earlier, there were reports highlighting the Sangh’s attempts at pushing the Narendra Modi government to introduce a population control policy. RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat brought up the issue during a speech at the Moradabad Institute of Technology (MIT) earlier this week, clarifying the policy was not specific to any particular region.
The RSS chief said the policy was the need of the hour but it was up to the Central government to take a final call on it.
“This law will not have any relation to any particular religion and will be applicable to all,” the RSS Sarsanghchalak had said.
