BJP MP seconds Shiv Sena’s call

The anti-minority tirade from the ruling dispensation continued on Monday with BJP MP from Unnao (Uttar Pradesh) Sachchinand Hari Sakshi Maharaj endorsing NDA ally Shiv Sena’s appeal. The Sena had suggested disenfranchising Muslims, saying “those who have four wives and 40 children” should not be allowed to vote.

The beginning of his spiel was at a press conference in Unnao, which the MP addressed on Monday with Minister of State for Tourism Mahesh Sharma in Unnao.

“There is so much hue and cry when we talk about Hindus producing four children. But why doesn’t anyone say anything when some people are allowed to have five wives and 40 children,” he was quoted as saying by a section of the Hindi media.

“There is sterilisation. When Hindus do it, why shouldn’t Muslims do it? There will be no appeasement of any section in this regime,” he said.

“I don’t say Muslims and Christians should be sterilised. But there should be family planning and a uniform law for all,” he added.

“Whether for one, two, three or four kids, unless we have a common law for everyone, the country will not benefit. So both the government and the Opposition should come together to bring a strict law and those who do not follow it should be stripped of their voting rights,” he said.

The BJP had, till late Monday evening, officially not reacted to the party MP’s latest outburst.

Sakshi Maharaj has earlier made similar offensive remarks. He first demanded that Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin Nathuram Godse be declared a “patriot” and followed it up by asking Hindus to “produce four kids” each.

His comments came along with the Shiv Sena’s appeal in party mouthpiece Saamana that Muslims should be stripped of their voting rights because they are being used as a “vote bank”.