Shiv Sena takes a dig at Bhagwat's Hindu population comment

Mumbai, Aug 22: Terming RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's comments on declining Hindu population as "outdated", Shiv Sena today said the progressive Hindu community would not accept his thoughts and asked the Centre to implement uniform civil code to maintain "social and cultural balance".

Instead of focusing on increasing the population of Hindus to counter the rising Muslim population, the Narendra Modi government needs to implement the uniform civil code at the earliest, Sena, a long-time ally of BJP, said. "Mohan Bhagwat has tried to present outdated thoughts in a modern way. His remarks will not be accepted by progressive Hindu community.

Also, PM Modi would not agree that increasing Hindu population is the right way to counter growing Muslim population," an editorial in Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana' said. "The government is spending a lot of money on family planning. A rise in Muslim population will undoubtedly affect the social and cultural balance of the country, but asking Hindus to have more children is no solution to the problem.

"The only solution is to implement the uniform civil code to cap the population of all communities. If Hindus give birth to more children, problems like hunger, unemployment and inflation will only increase," the Sena said.

Sena also sought to know if Bhagwat was discreetly trying to back the idea of Hindus having more than one spouse to boost the population of the community. "In reality, Bhagwat's thoughts are like a web stuck on the ideals of Hindutva. Instead of this, why does he not back the uniform civil code and strict norms of family planning?", it asked.

Responding to a question at an event in Agra recently, Bhagwat had said, "Which law says that the population of Hindus should not rise? There is nothing like that. What is stopping them when population of others is rising? The issue is not related to the system. It is because the social environment is like this."

PTI