- By Radha Basnet
- Wed, 17 Jul 2024 02:05 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
Balmukundacharya, Bharatiya Janata Party MLA from Rajasthan, has once again stirred up controversy with his comments targeting the Muslim community. In his latest remarks, the BJP MLA said people in "a particular community" have "four begums and 36 children", and asserted that a population control law is a "necessity" for the country.
"There is a huge problem of increasing population. There is a particular community which has ‘char begum aur chhatis bacche’. There are countless such cases. This is wrong. There should be equal laws for everyone, otherwise, how will the country move forward," Balmukundacharya said a quoted by the news agency PTI.
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"There is nothing wrong in the population law. The way the population is increasing, there is a need for more food and housing. This (population) is a hurdle in growth. If we want to become a prosperous and developed country, there should be collective agreement on this and population control law should be made, it will be beneficial for all," he added.
He also cited instances of people in his constituency, including an e-rickshaw driver with 13 children and a woman who was the third wife of her husband, to justify his views. "A sister came to my office and said she was the third wife of her husband and now he was going to bring a fourth. I told her that now there is a law against it and she should go to police," he said.
The MLA's remarks have faced strong criticism from Congress as party MLA Harimohan Sharma accused the BJP government of targeting a "particular community" instead of having a genuine concern for population control.
"A particular community is being targeted. If population law is to be brought, Congress would support it but the BJP’s intention is to target the Muslim community instead of bringing the law," he said. "The BJP government talks from a political point of view and from the point of view of targeting a particular community," he added.
