Patna: Sushant Singh Rajput's cousin brother Neeraj Kumar Singh Bablu on Saturday issued a controversial statement claiming that India would turn into Afghanistan if the population cannot be controlled. Bablu is the Minister for the Environment, Forest and Climate Change in Nitish Kumar led government in Bihar.
“Before caste census, we need the implementation of population control policy in the state and country. There is an explosion of population in the country and we need to control it. If this is the pace of the population rise, I firmly believe that Talibani like forces will raise their heads in the country and we will face Afghanistan like situation,” said Neeraj Bablu.
Bablu issued the statement in the backdrop of the caste-based census demand being raised by all political parties in Bihar. The Centre recently rejected the demand in Parliament stating that other than Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribes no other caste census would be conducted in the country.
Earlier this week, Nitish had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the eleven-member delegation of 10 different political parties to press the demand for the caste-based census. However, many Bharatiya Janata Party leaders are opposing the caste census and have issued statements against it. Bablu is one of them who is not in favour of caste-based census.
However, few leaders of the saffron party have supported the demand including former deputy chief minister and Rajya Sabha member Sushil Kumar Modi. Reacting to the confrontation within BJP, the Janata Dal (United) parliamentary board chairman Upendra Kushwaha had recently asked BJP to resolve the 'inner conflict' on the issue.
Also read: Kushwaha asks BJP to resolve inner conflict on caste census
Justifying his stance on the population control policy, Bablu further said, “Due to excessive load of the population the area of earth is shrinking. We cannot do any work related to the development of the country if this is the pace of population rise. Before the caste census, we need to implement population control policy in the state and country.”
Nitish, on the other hand, had already rejected the idea of population control policy in Bihar. Last month, Nitish had categorically stated that the population cannot be controlled by just making laws stressing upon education as the only tool to tackle the situation.
However, BJP leaders on the other hand continuously demanded the policy. Two union ministers Giriraj Singh and Nityanand Rai had also issued their statement in support of the population control bill but the chief minister of Bihar has completely rejected the idea. By issuing such a statement, Bablu has not only challenged his own chief minister but also joined the bandwagon of caste census opponents.
