Shiv Sena urges Indian govt to impose family planning on Muslims

The extremist party hopes Modi will clearly tell India’s Muslim community to accept the necessity of family planning

Shiv Sena, the hardliner Hindu extremist party, urged Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday to necessitate family planning upon Muslims, the country’s largest minority community.

A controversial editorial in the Sena’s party mouthpiece ‘Saamna’ likened the Muslim population growth to that of a “runaway bullet train”, warning that the surge in the numbers of the minority community would result in linguistic and geographical imbalance in the country.

Further, it opposed recent suggestions by the hardliner Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and some Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MPs that the Hindu community ought to reproduce more.

“Increasing the Hindu population to match the rise in minority community numbers is not the solution. Instead, the Central government should urge strict family planning measures upon people from all religions,” said the editorial.

Read: Shiv Sena advocates denial of voting rights for Muslims

It noted that in the decade from 2001-2011, India’s Muslim population had shot up nearly 24 per cent and speculated a 5-10 per cent rise till 2015.

The extremist party hopes Modi would clearly tell India’s Muslim community to accept the necessity of family planning.

“The Prime Minister promised to address their [the minority community’s] issues even if they knocked his doors at midnight. But, would the Muslims similarly reciprocate while running the country?” asked the editorial.

Earlier in April, the Indian right-wing party had demanded the revocation of voting rights for Muslims.

The article originally appeared on The Hindu