Giriraj's Singh's 'mass sterilisation' statement aimed at breaking nation's social fabric JD (U)

Reprimanding Union Minister Giriraj Singh for demanding mass sterilisation in the country, the Janata Dal (United) party has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to prevent his Cabinet members from making such statements which could rupture the social fabric of India.

"These are just scandalous statements trying to break the social fabric of India. Even people understand this very well. Hence the responsibility falls on the BJP and Prime Minister Modi to caution such ministers from making such provocative remarks attempting to break the society," JD(U) leader Rajeev Ranjan told ANI.

Another JD-(U) member Anwar Ali said the minister's plan to conduct mass sterilisation will fall flat as similar exercise undertaken by Congress leader and former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's son Sanjay Gandhi did not succeed as well in the late 1970s.

"We all know what happened when Sanjay Gandhi similarly preached for mass sterilisation, it fizzled out soon. Hence I am confident that it will meet the same end," Ali told ANI.

Giriraj Singh, the Minister of State for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, had advocated for sterilisation at a function in his parliamentary constituency Nawada on Saturday.

He said the India needs a strong population control act as the country was over populated and this was affecting development and social stability.

Singh is the second such minister to have called for controlling the population. Last week, former union minister and senior BJP leader Sanjay Paswan had made a similar statement.

Interestingly, Singh had previously asked the Hindus to produce more children since, he claimed, that their population was decreasing whereas the Muslim population was increasing.