Jitan Ram Manjhi backs Nitish Kumar on population control steps

PATNA: The controversy and differences over the need for population control law has engulfed the Bihar NDA. Former CM and Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) chief Jitan Ram Manjhi on Wednesday came in open support of CM Nitish Kumar whose stand has divided the state NDA.
“In matters of population control, HAM welcomes the statement and ways as given by Nitish Kumar. It is due to the impact of education among girls that the fertility rate of Bihar is less than the national average,” Manjhi tweeted. “Therefore, it is necessary that other states also adopt the Nitish Kumar model on population control,” he added.
On Monday, Nitish took the position that the population control law alone will not help in checking the population growth and, in fact, providing education to girls is the sure and certain route to it, as the Bihar example had shown.
After the janata darbar programme, Nitish cited statistics and said the fertility rate in women of Bihar, who had completed their intermediate level of education, was 1.6 percent against the national average of 1.7%. On the other hand, the fertility rate among the matriculate women was on par with the national average at 2%.
Nitish also said the education of women will help in controlling the state’s population by 2040. He pointed out that law could have its value, but education and awareness was the more effective route to population control.
On Tuesday, several BJP leaders, including deputy CM Renu Devi, minister Samrat Choudhary and party president Dr Sanjay Jaiswal had either made veiled criticism of Nitish, or praised UP CM Yogi Adityanath for bringing out his government’s draft Bill on population control law for his state, taking it as a model, which, in fact, has also spurred the central BJP to take the issue to Parliament.
Indeed, as the BJP braces for a discussion in the Rajya Sabha on the need for a law on population control in the monsoon session of Parliament in August, the Bihar NDA partners are divided over the issues related to population control.
Clearly, the JD(U) led by CM Nitish Kumar and the state BJP brass on the two sides of the divide. Of the four NDA partners in Bihar, Manjhi has come in support of Nitish, while minister and Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) chief Mukesh Sahani with four MLAs in the assembly has not yet opened his mind on it. Sahani is an MLC on the BJP quota.
Given the context, Rajya Sabha member, Bihar BJP senior and former deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi on Wednesday issued his tweets on the matters related to population control, and also asked the Bihar NDA partners to be restrained.
“On this issue the NDA components should not make statements publicly, and instead, they should sit together to consider as to how should population be controlled to increase the pace of development, and also how should the population be used as resources,” Modi said, adding: “There should not be politics on this issue.”
He said that the central and state governments in the country have been giving incentives – like LTC benefits, Rs 1500 monthly support, I-T relief and benefits under Janani Swasthya Yojana -- to their employees who abide by the two-child norm policy. Other benefits include I-T relief and under Janani Swasthya Yojana.
Further, Modi said that “in Bihar, after the formation of the NDA government, the municipal corporation Act was amended to provide that only those with two children can contest the elections to the urban local bodies.”
Without saying if a similar condition and arrangement will be provided to contest the forthcoming panchayat elections in Bihar, Modi said that it was the norm in the states like Rajasthan, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand and Odisha. Similarly, mandatory adherence to the two-child norm by a family provided the route to getting a government job in Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan, he added.