New Delhi: Actor-turned-Bhartiya Janta Party leader Ravi Kishan who was been spearheading the 'population control' campaign was unable to move Private Member's Bill on population control in the Lok Sabha amid the uproar of opposition parties. Thereafter, Ravi Kishan came under attack from social media users and trollers for bringing in the bill despite himself being a father of four children including three daughters and a son as trollers raised the question over his morals. "There is no place for morality and principles in politics as politicians openly indulge in corruption and defections," says political expert Yogesh Mishra.
Moving to the Population Control Bill, in 2019, a private member bill was brought in by BJP MP Rakesh Sinha The proposed bill aimed at disincentivizing couples from giving birth to more than two children. It says that couples with more than two children policy be made ineligible for government jobs and subsidies on various facilities and goods provided by the government.
However, BJP MP Rakesh Sinha on Saturday told ETV Bharat that the bill he had brought to Rajya Sabha had to be withdrawn as the government had clearly refused it in Parliament. But the moot question is whether the members of the same Parliament through which this law is being made, have limited their own family to two children or not. The information accessed by ETV Bharat about the family of MPs on the website of Lok Sabha depicts a different picture.
As per the information on the Lok Sabha website, there are a total of 543 Lok Sabha members out of which 303 are of BJP, 53 of Congress, 24 of DMK, 23 of Trinamool Congress, 22 of YSR Congress, 19 of Shiv Sena, 16 of JD(U), 12 of BJD,10 of BSP and others. Out of these 543 members, there are 171 members who have more than 2 children out of which BJP has 107, Congress (10), JD(U) (9), DMK (6), and others out of 25 political parties.
Also read: Twitter burns actor-MP Ravi Kishan, father of 4, who bats for Population Control Bill
Interestingly, there are 39 MPs from BJP, who have four or more children while from the remaining political parties, there are around 25 such MPs. There are 3 MPs including MP Maulana Badruddin from AIUDF, Pakauri Lal from Apna Dal (S)(2), and Dilashwar Kamait from JD(U) who have 7 children while one MP has 6 children. In such a scenario, the MPs who have more than 3 or 4 children will be able to give assent to the bill. That's a million-dollar question?
Sharing his view on this topic, senior journalist Vinod Agnihotri said that the government is actually trying to gauge the mood of Parliament and the country through these bills. There is also a thinking that as soon as the debate on this issue starts, the polarization will happen immediately and the BJP will get benefited in some way or the other.
On the question of moral legitimacy, senior journalist and political expert Yogesh Mishra opined that the word 'legitimacy' has no real space in the realm of politics. "We've been seeing open defections. Ministers still holding their offices even after being caught in corruption cases, so the space of morality and principle has no real space in politics."
"However, in the domain of 'Population Control Policy', one could also introspect on who is bringing the bill since that is a key issue. Whether this issue picks up a political debate or not, only time will decide but one cannot ignore the Parliamentary majority of BJP in both the house of the Parliament."It is pertinent to note here that the two-child policy has been tabled in Parliament nearly three dozen times, but has failed to get a nod from either of the Houses.
However, it is worthy to note that the Minister of State for Health Bharati Pravin Pawar told the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday that the Union Government is not considering any legislative measure for population control. Pawar said according to National Family Health Survey-5, the Total fertility Rare (TFR) declined to 2.0 in 2019-21 which is below the replacement level.
However, there are leaders like UP CM Yogi Adityanath, Union Minister Giriraj Singh, and many others from the saffron party and Hindutava groups who have been demanding the introduction of laws to check the rising population growth in the country.
