A lawmaker affiliated with India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has blamed Muslims for the upsurge in the country’s population.
Sakshi Maharaj followed with an explanation which did nothing to abate public anger. “The population is increasing by the day. A woman is not a machine. It is not acceptable to have four wives, 40 children and three divorces…We should be rewarded as I have four brothers and we all are unmarried and we don’t have any children,” Maharaj told ANI.
Police have registered a complaint against him and the organisers of Friday’s event. The lawmaker’s contentious comments came just before elections in Uttar Pradesh.
The Indian National Congress attacked the BJP over the remarks. “The speech of Sakshi Maharaj, based on religion and caste is very offensive, it violates the Model Code of Conduct. Action should be taken. We will definitely move the Election Commission,” KC Mittal of the Congress told ANI.
Sakshi Maharaj has courted infamy courtesy his communal utterances. The lawmaker also called for the death penalty in connection with cow slaughter in 2016.
Earlier in 2016, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) vowed to disenfranchise millions of Muslim immigrants in Assam, waging a polarising election campaign in a bid to secure power in the border state.
In campaign rallies across Assam, BJP officials promised to identify and deport younger illegal migrants in response to rising discontent among the state’s Hindus.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has distanced itself from Maharaj’s remarks. “This shouldn’t be seen as the BJP’s stand,” Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said.
Courtesy: NDTV
