Rajasthan Minister Babulal Kharadi has sparked a controversy with his remarks calling upon people to have more children as Prime Minister Narendra Modi “will build houses for them and provide LPG cylinders at subsidised prices”.
Mr. Kharadi, who holds the tribal area development and civil defence portfolios, made the remarks during at a Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra camp at Nai village in Udaipur district on Tuesday, in the presence of Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma.
The Minister said it was the Prime Minister’s dream that no one should go to bed hungry and without a roof over their head. “You give birth to lots of children. The PM will build your houses, then what is the problem?” he said. The BJP government in the State was supplying LPG cylinders under the Ujjwala Yojana for ₹450, he added.
While the audience started laughing at the remarks, the leaders present at the meeting were seen staring at each other in bewilderment.
Mr. Kharadi, who has eight children from two wives, also called upon the people to vote for Mr. Modi again in the upcoming Lok Sabha election, while affirming that the BJP government at the Centre was initiating a number of public welfare measures.
In the 2023 Assembly election, Mr. Kharadi won from Udaipur’s Jhadol constituency, reserved for the Scheduled Tribes, for the fourth time. Mr. Kharadi was inducted as a Cabinet Minister in the newly formed BJP government in the State on December 30.
