Salman Khurshid attacks UP government on new draft population control bill

KANPUR: Senior Congress leader and former Union minister Salman Khurshid has slammed the Yogi government over its new population control bill saying “before making the law, the government should tell how many legitimate and illegitimate children its ministers have”.
A video of his statement is going viral on social media, wherein the senior politician could be heard asking the ministers of the government to “first reveal about their legitimate and illegitimate children”. The veracity of the video is, however, yet to be established.
In the video, Khurshid purportedly says that before the population control law, the government should tell how many children its ministers have. “First they should declare how many of their children are legitimate and how many are illegitimate. I will also declare how many I have and then it should be discussed.”
In the video, he also said as far as treatment of coronavirus is concerned, he has heard of black fungus, but the government played black jokes with the public.
Taking a jibe at India-Pakistan relations, he said that relations with Pakistan were good only when “Modi Ji went to Pakistan”.
“What did he say in his (then PM of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif) ear with a hug and what did he say in Modi Ji’s ear. This should also be revealed by Modi Ji,” the former Union minister added.
Sources have informed TOI that the video was shot while he was talking to reporters during his visit to his native place in Farrukhabad a couple of days ago.
Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday unveiled the new population policy 2021-30, on the occasion of World Population Day.
The State Law Commission has also prepared the draft of the Uttar Pradesh Population (Control, Stabilization, and Welfare) Bill-2021, on which the public can give suggestions till July 19.
According to the proposal, parents who limit their family to only two children and are in government service and undergoing voluntary sterilization will be given facilities like two additional increments, promotion, an exemption in government housing schemes, increasing employer contribution in PF.
There are also provisions to provide exemptions in water, electricity, house tax, home loan, and other such facilities to couples with two children who are not in government jobs.