Ramdas Athawale bats for 1-child norm; says 'there should be a law for hum do, hamara ek'

Union Social Justice Minister Ramdas Athawale on Saturday said that his party supports the one-child policy as the population growth in India needs to be controlled for ensuring development. When asked to comment on Gujarat Deputy CM Nitin Patel's remark that people would be able to talk about secularism only so long as Hindus are in majority, the Union Minister said that there was no possibility of the Hindu population dwindling. 

Ramdas Athawale said, "I do not think there is any question of the Hindu population declining. Hindus remain Hindu and Muslims remain Muslim. Hardly one or two Hindus or Muslims convert. The Constitution gives people the right to do what they like, but nobody can force any person to covert."

Ramdas Athawale: 'There is a need to control population'

While stating that there would not be much change in the proportion of Hindus and Muslims in the population, Athawale said that it is not the case that the populations of Muslims have risen sharply in all these years. Remarking that there is a need to control the population for the development of the country, irrespective of whether it is the population of Hindus or Muslims, he said, "If we adopt one family, one-child policy, we would be able to reduce population."

"For now we have 'hum do, hamare do'....Our party's stand is that to reduce population, there should be a law for 'hum do, hamara ek, (one family, one child)," Athawale said.

The Union Minister said that he will take up this issue with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. When asked about several instances of Dalits facing intimidation for sporting moustache or riding a horse being reported in Gujarat, Athawale, a prominent Dalit leader from Maharashtra, said that he will raise the issue with Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani. 

Ramdas Athawale said, "It is true that the caste system continues to exist not only in Gujarat but across the country. From the point of view of law, it has ended, but it continues to exist in the minds of people. He will ask Rupani to take special measures for the protection of Dalits."

This comes after Nitin Patel at a public event said that, "those talking about the Constitution, laws, secularism will continue to talk only as long as Hindus are in majority in this country... (if) the number of Hindus decreases, and (number of) people of another religion increase, there will be no courts, Lok Sabha, Constitution, secularism, they will all vanish in thin air."

(Image: ANI, Unsplash)