Union Minister Giriraj Singh says ‘Nasbandi’ after ‘Notebandi’

The comments have been dismissed by the Bharatiya Janata Party as 'personal opinions' of the leader and said it has nothing to do with the Government or the Party.

Patna, Dec 5: Giriraj Singh, Union Minister of State of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise said that in view of population growth, there is an urgent need of ‘nasbandi’ (sterilisation) and the Government must consider this logical step post the demonetisation move. While his comment raised uproar and major controversy, another BJP leader cited a few days back that if other countries have a law to control population, why cannot India adopt a similar one.

Giriraj Singh gave the comment while attending a function in Nawada, which is notably his parliamentary constituency. He added that India needs to adopt stronger population control laws, including sterilisation, to check overpopulation, which is one major obstruction to the country’s development.

Singh was quoted by Hindustan Times saying that India annually contributes population which is equal to Australia. India has 17 per cent of the world population, while only 2.5 per cent of world’s land mass and only 4.2 per cent of water resources. “In this scenario, the population explosion is proving to be a big roadblock for development.” the report at Hindustan Times quoted him saying.

BJP leader Sanjay Paswan, who is also from Bihar, have backed sterilisation for population control in the country in a statement a week ago. Reportedly, Paswan said that there are population control laws in Bangladesh and Malaysia and there is nothing wrong if it happens in India.

The comments have been dismissed by the Bharatiya Janata Party as ‘personal opinions’ of the leader and said it has nothing to do with the Government. BJP leader was quoted by ANI saying, “Everyone should come forward to spread the cause and create awareness to control population.” He further added that the party or the government has no agenda but it wants to control population by making people understand and aware about the issue.